(Olivia Mc Parland, Irish News)

Voting in Gibraltar for next year's European Parliament elections will be "lost" by the region's inclusion in an English constituency, a former Ulster Unionist MP has said. The next European elections in June 2004 will see Gibraltar's 17,000 eligible voters exercising their franchise – but this has been ruled too small to be designated a separate constituency. Under the European Parliament Representation Act of May 2003, Gibraltar will instead be combined with an existing region in England and Wales to form a new electoral region.

Local politicians had been campaigning to have Gibraltar attached to Northern Ireland.

Lord Kilclooney of Armagh (former Ulster Unionist MP John Taylor) said there was a strong link between the two states. "During the war the Gibraltarians were brought over to Ballymena and Saintfield and other parts of Northern Ireland for safety," he said. "However, London is going to sink them into an English constituency were they will be lost."

This article appeared first in the June 10, 2003 edition of the Irish News.

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