Jim Nicholson (politician)

James Frederick "Jim" Nicholson ( born January 29, 1945 in Armagh ) is a Northern Irish politician of the Ulster Unionist Party ( UUP ). He is a member of the European Parliament.

Political career

Nicholson first worked on his family's farm as a farmer and later devoted himself entirely to politics. In the early 1970s he joined the UUP, for which he was elected to the City Council of Armagh in 1976, where he remained until 1997. From 1996 he was also Mayor of Armagh.

1982-1986 Nicholson was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. In the UK general election in 1983, he moved into the House of Commons. He was a member of the Agriculture Committee. However, when combined with all other members of the UUP, he joined in 1985 as a protest against the Treaty Anglo -Irish back. 1986 found therefore in the constituencies of the UUP MPs elections held, where Nicholson was able to regain the only one not located again, so he had to leave Parliament. In 1987 he came to again, but was again not successful.

In the European elections in 1989 Nicholson won a seat in the European Parliament, he could confirm in the elections in 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009. At first he was a member of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats (EPP- ED), but resigned in 1997 in the Eurosceptic faction Independent for Europe of the Nations, whose he was Deputy Chairman. In 1999 he returned to the EPP -ED, 2009, he joined - together with members of the British Conservative Party - the newly formed conservative eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) at.

Nicholson is since 2004 one of the six Quaestors, representing the interests of members in the Bureau of the European Parliament, such as the control of administrative and financial issues. He sees himself as a " Euro realists" and rejects a European federal state, as well as the possible introduction of the euro in the UK. However it highlights the financial and infrastructural benefits that Northern Ireland has drawn from the membership of the European Union.

Nicholson is married and has six sons and one daughter.