Na verkiezingen: veel nieuwe gezichten in het Europees Parlement (en) - Main contents

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As the dust begins to settle in the European Parliament after the elections, new faces are mixing with old, some high-flyers have not made it back, others are in for the first time while some fell at their first election hurdle.

Some of those drawing the most media attention in the run-up to the elections were among those that did not make it.

Dolly Buster, the ex-porn star running in the Czech Republic, managed the double whammy of not only not being elected but not voting for herself either.

According to Czech media, she was unable to vote as her name was not on the voting list because she registered too late.

Another blond female who hit the headlines was Estonian super-model Carmen Kass but the business-friendly party Res Publica - for whom she was running - received a drubbing in the elections and got no seats in parliament.

However, some MEPs with unusual CVs did get in. Slovakia's ice hockey star Peter Statsny is now an MEP, as is former Czech cosmonaut Vladimir Remek.

Meanwhile some parties find themselves represented for the first time. Sinn Fein, the Irish republican party, has returned two MEPs one from Northern Ireland and one from the South.

The German liberals, on the other hand, are making a return to the Brussels assembly - with 7 MEPs - after having been missing for the last five years.

Heavyweights to Brussels

While some active members of the parliament are gone - they will be replaced by some other heavy-weights.

Former Belgian prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene has been elected, as have former leaders Poul Nyrup Ramussen of Denmark, Alojz Peterle of Slovenia, Anneli Jäätteenmäki of Finland and Jerzy Buzek of Poland.

Former foreign ministers include France's Pierre Moscovici and two from Poland: Bronislaw Geremek and Dariusz Rosati.

Old hands

Some old hands are back again. Jens-Peter Bonde, the veteran Danish eurosceptic MEP, has made a reappearance - as has been the case since the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979.

Other MEPs of the 1979 generation who cannot resist Brussels include German socialist MEP and former head of the assembly Klaus Hänsch and fellow German Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the centre-right EPP.

Most of the countries have finished counting and allocating their votes - in Italy the exact list of MEPs is still unclear - but the definitive list of euro-deputies for the next five years is not due out until 28 June.