As a recently elected Member of the European Parliament I am often asked to define my role and my responsibilities in what is still seen by many as a most unfamiliar and distant political institution.

There is of course no easy answer to such a question. British MEPs naturally put the interests of their constituents first but thereafter the scope of their activities is largely dictated by their membership of one of the Parliament’s 20 specialised committees. With a background in higher education it was natural that the British Conservative section should put me forward to become a member of the culture committee - or the committee on culture, youth, media and sport to give it its full name.

For those more familiar with the Westminster committee system it might be helpful to describe European Parliament committees as a hybrid of a Westminster select and standing committee. Its principal role is to amend proposed legislation in the same way that a standing committee does; yet it does so with the benefit of subject specialisation - an attribute of the select committee.

It would be fair to say that up until recently the committee was considered to be something of a legislative backwater. Article 126, 127 and 128 of the Maastricht Treaty which for the first time give the European Union real competence in the fields of education, training and culture have helped to change this. The fact that a number of influential and experienced members of Parliament such as Labour’s Carol Tongue have chosen to sit on the culture committee rather than on other more high profile committees is further evidence of our new found vigour and potency.

There is no shortage of glamour either among the 30 members of our committee: Jack Lang the former French minister for culture, Nana Mouskouri, the Greek singer , Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the leader of the May 1968 Paris riots and Luisa Todini, the daughter of Italy’s biggest taxpayer and at 28 the second youngest member of Parliament after the UK’s Eluned Morgan. They give our committee a broad spectrum of experience that is probably unique in Parliament.

In the past the culture committee only amended a handful of legislative measures. Its function was mainly advisory. All this has changed. The committee has recently voted on a number of important proposals principally covering the areas of educational exchanges (the Socrates programme) and vocational training (the Leonardo programme).

Early next year the European Commission will bring before the committee its proposals for the review of the 1989 Television Without Frontiers directive, which, among other things, sets minimum quotas for the European content of television programming.

This is a sensitive area particularly for those countries that have a strong tradition in cinema production. I am well aware of the importance of supporting existing forms of our own cultural expression and I will think long and hard before criticising the French or Italians for wanting to protect some elements of their linguistically unique cinema industry. Film production is an integral part of our national heritage as important as architecture or literature. Preserving and promoting these forms of cultural expression is the surest way of ensuring that we protect and reinforce our own national identity, an important priority for the European and British, electorate and therefore an obvious priority, for the European Parliament culture committee.

Roy Perry is Conservative MEP for Wight and Hampshire South and former politics lecturer at Southampton University.