Arlene McCarthy was first elected as a Labour MEP for the North West Region in June 1999 and was re-elected in June 2004. Previously she had served as MEP for the Peak District from June 1994 until June 1999.

She works alongside 19 Labour MEPs from across Britain, as members of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.

Arlene is;

• Chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee.
• Link Member for Anglo-German relations.
• Member of the EU-US Parliamentary Delegation.
• Vice-President of the European Parliament's All-Party Sports Intergroup.
• Convener of the European Parliament's Urban Affairs Working Group.

Arlene is a member of the Co-operative Party, UNISON and Amicus-AEEU.

A fluent German and French speaker she often engages her European colleagues in debate in their own language - and has appeared on German television and radio programmes and French radio programmes. She is currently getting to grips with Italian!

Before being elected as a Euro MP in June 1994 Arlene was:

• Former Head of European Affairs for Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, attracting substantial amounts of EU funding to the area
• Guest Research Fellow and Lecturer in European Foreign and Security Policy at the free University of Berlin
• Researcher for the Socialist Group in the European Parliament
• Teaching Assistant during PhD Study, Manchester University

Arlene co-edited Changing States, a book looking at Britain's new European Agenda, with Glyn Ford MEP and Glenys Kinnock MEP. She wrote the chapter entitled: A Europe of the Regions: Building Economic and Social Cohesion in Britain and Europe. (Published autumn 1996).

Born in Belfast in October 1960. She attended Friends School in Lisburn before leaving in 1979 to attend University in London and Manchester. Arlene takes a personal interest in the Peace Process, as well as a political interest as she was the European Parliamentary Labour Party's Link Person with the UK Government's Northern Ireland team from 1997-99.

Arlene is married to Prof. David Farrell, Professor in Government and Politics at Manchester University, where he specialises in work on electoral systems and European politics.