"Wreckers or Builders?"

FOREWORD

by Neil Kinnock

At last we have a history of Labour MEPs in the first twenty years of the directly elected Parliament. This piece of Labour history has not been written before and there's reason to be grateful, therefore, to Anita Pollack who has produced a well-researched record - warts and all - of the period when Labour in the European Parliament grew from 17 to 62 Members and Labour's policy on the EU changed from withdrawal to committed support for membership and reforms.

Using a combination of her own experience, interviews with MEPs and others with substantial engagement in European affairs, and thorough examination of the official European Parliament records, Anita has tracked the turbulent years from the first direct elections of 1979 to the change of electoral system in 1999. From the leadership of Barbara Castle to the Labour Government of Tony Blair, fascinating stories emerge of a Labour group which mixed members who were hell-bent on fundamentalist anti-Europeanism with mainstream European social democrats; of a long Labour march from the devastating defeat of 1979, through the advances of the 80s and early 90s, to the landslide victory of 1997; and of a growing Labour contribution to the joint efforts of the Socialist group to promote progressive policies on workers' rights, gender and race equality, European enlargement, international development, social justice, environmental and consumer protection and the endless list of other issues which rightly engage the world's only elected international parliament.

The events, conflicts and progress of these decades will be of interest to political activists, students and those working in the European institutions -particularly as the law-making power of MEPs has grown to become an equal partnership with the Council of Ministers. The work of MEPs rarely gets much publicity, the value which they give to European democracy is too often ignored, and the importance of the victories and defeats which they experience is largely unknown. This book helps to make the Parliament, its people and its workings more visible and understandable. It is, therefore, an account which adds to accountability. Every democrat must welcome that.

Neil Kinnock

Westminster
April 2009