All politicians get a tough time in the media and from the general public and while we’ve every right to criticise it’s often because we don’t know exactly what they’re doing.
It’s even harder for MEPs who are often out of the public eye, but being a politician in Europe is probably a lot harder than you think.
It’s not unusual for Irish MEPs to work 12 or 14 hour days, and when they finish their working week it can take them the best part of a day to get back to their families.
- A typical MEP’s day will start at 8am in the office and by 9am they’ll be attending meetings of their political group, parliamentary committee meetings or meetings with lobby groups.
- MEP’s usually attend several meetings during the day before returning to their office in the evening to catch up on paperwork, the day’s news and check their emails.
- MEP’s typically work a four week cycle. Two of the weeks will be spent working with their political groups to lay the groundwork for a week of plenary sessions in Strasburg and a week of meetings with the parliamentary committees that they’re members of.
- Irish MEPs work from Monday to Thursday in Brussels – or Strasburg when there’s Plenary sessions – and usually travel back to Ireland for the rest of the week
- Travelling home is often a job in itself. An MEP living in the west of Ireland, for example, may have to catch a flight to Dublin, grab a taxi to the city centre, hop on a train to Galway and arrange to be picked up and driven home
- MEPs are well paid but they put in long hours and do sacrifice a lot of their personal life for their job.
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