Jim Higgins MEP for Ireland North West has been most active in terms of questioning the European Commission in the first four years of the current five year European Parliament term. New figures show that MEP Jim Higgins asked 513 questions to the European Commission, which is made up of 27 commissioners, in the period July 2009 to July 2013. MEPs are entitled to ask written questions of the commission in order to hold the commission to account. MEP Higgins has asked a wide range of questions, on transport, fisheries, and market competition matters in particular.
Speaking at his constituency office in Mayo Jim Higgins said: “Parliamentary questions can be a very powerful way of getting the commission to act. It is a very effective way of keeping the political pressure on in terms of ensuring that certain issues of interest to Ireland are kept to the fore of the European Commission’s work programme.” Higgins highlighted the case of Bus Eireann subsidies, which is an investigation on-going since 2007. “The files on this case were actually left sitting in the wrong department of the European Commission when the new commission was formed in 2010. It wasn't until a series of written questions I put down, in 2012, that the commission began to dig out these files. As I result I expect to have a full report into the lack of competition in the Irish bus market by the end of this year,” he said. Of the 754 MEPs in the European Parliament, MEP Higgins came 19th in the rankings.
