Cyprus Editorial: What do future MEPs say about corporate dominance?

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With less than four weeks to go before the European Parliament elections, now is the time to urge future MEPs to commit to end corporate dominance over EU decision-making.
The nearly-40 candidates in Cyprus, vying for the six seats allocated to us, should state clearly whether or not they have already pledged to improve lobby transparency and ethics, and improve trade policy, financial market rules and corporate accountability.
It’s no use squabbling over whether Cypriots are more or less European than citizens in the other 26 member states. Nor is it worthwhile quarrelling over our potential membership of the Partnership for Peace programme, and whether that body is to blame for the Turkish invasion and occupation of the island’s northern part. These are naïve and immature arguments that weaken a candidate’s knowledge of all things European and how decision making in Brussels can affect everyday life in Cyprus.
Of greater interest to us are fundamental issues such as labour reform and competitiveness, improving productivity on a EU-wide scale, elevating our standards of education and health services to levels of excellence, eliminating monopolistic conditions and safeguarding some of the vital national assets, respecting human rights and encouraging multiculturalism while protecting the EU’s borders.
Although the paramount issue for all of us remains solving the island’s decades-old division, the issues mentioned above are equally important as improving the quality of life and investing further in civil society will help build the necessary groundwork to prepare for any future political solution.
The past term has been a learning curve for our six MEPs and the next term should see them produce even greater results. But we should also be mindful of watching their every step to ensure that decisions taken by the Commission and scrutinised by the European Parliament, are to the benefit of us all.