Three Turkish Elected To EU Parliament

There are some 3.4 million Muslims in Germany . An estimated two thirds of them are of Turkish origin.

Human Rights

In the Netherlands , Buzkurt, relishing in her success, was hopeful to join the EU Parliament Human Rights Committee.

She said human rights are one of bones of contention between her homeland and the European Union, reported the Turkish Zaman newspaper.

Buzkart said she would work for the accession of Turkey to the powerful 25-member bloc.

D. Gok, one of the key candidates for the Dutch Green Party, though the sizable Turkish community in the country has more than 120,000 eligible votes.

O. Elmaci, the only Turkish Muslim candidate running ob the slates of a Christian party in Europe , did not make it to the legislature.

In Belgium , three Turkish candidates vied in the elections on the slates of the Liberal and Greens parties. None of them won.

Two French Muslims have been elected to the newly enlarged European Parliament, representing the governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the opposition Socialist Party (PS).

The European parliament elections have left almost all the ruling parties reeling as voters dealt them stunning defeats and stayed away from the polls in record numbers.

Voters punished governments who supported the US-led invasion of Iraq and for painful economic reforms, while the electorate in former communist eastern Europe showed no sympathy for leaders who guided them into the EU just over a month ago.

The first direct elections to the European Parliament were held in June 1979 and lawmakers are elected every five years.

The parliament has acquired greater influence and power through a series of treaties, chiefly the 1992 Maastricht Treaty and the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty.

These treaties have transformed the parliament from a purely consultative assembly into a legislative parliament, which now passes the majority of European laws.