Paisley to quit after 25 years as MEP

IAN PAISLEY will quit the European Parliament in June, he announced yesterday.

Mr Paisley, who has topped a poll in Northern Ireland in every European Parliament election, confirmed at Stormont he would not be seeking re-election.

The DUP leader will remain the MP and Assembly member for North Antrim and will head his party's talks team and review of the Good Friday Agreement on February 3.

The decision will mark the end of a colourful 25-year career in the European Parliament.

After receiving almost 30% of the overall Northern Ireland vote in the 1979 European election, he became the first MEP to speak in the Parliament when he protested that the Union Flag was flying upside down.

The DUP leader also interrupted the speech of then Taoiseach Jack Lynch to complain about Ireland's refusal to sign the European Convention on Terrorism.

In 1988 Mr Paisley faced angry objections from MEPs and was ejected from the European Parliament when he interrupted an address by Pope John Paul II.

He was an active member of the European Parliament Agriculture and Fisheries Committee, vigorously putting forward Northern Ireland's case during subsidy negotiations.

Along with former nationalist SDLP leader John Hume and Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson, Mr Paisley, 77, also secured European peace and reconciliation funding for socially deprived communities in northern Ireland and Border counties in the South.

His decision to stand down from the European Parliament came after the DUP's strong performance in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections in November where it emerged the largest party, overtaking David Trimble's Ulster Unionists.

The party was further boosted this month by the defection of three former Ulster Unionist Assembly members Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson, his constituency colleague Norah Beare and Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Arlene Foster which brought the DUP's total of Stormont seats to 33.

The Democratic Unionist leader said following his announcement that he was going to concentrate on the forthcoming review of the Good Friday Agreement on February 3.

He declared: "We have been accused of not being serious about these talks.

"Well, we are serious about these talks.

"Because of this I am not running away from Europe. I'm going to finish my course there. But I am not going back to Europe.

"I am going to be here in Northern Ireland. I am going to be in every one of these talks. Bertie Ahern will get away with nothing."

The DUP has not indicated who would be the party candidate in the June European Parliament election.