In 1993, he was
nominated by the Taoiseach Albert Reynolds to the
20th Seanad while he was still a second year law student in UCC. At the
1994 European Parliament election he was elected to the
European Parliament for the
Munster constituency. He retained his seat at the three subsequent elections. He was a member of Ireland's
Council of State from 1997 to 2004, On 12 February 2009, the Committee on Legal Affairs of the
European Parliament approved a report drafted by Brian Crowley to extend the
copyright term of music recordings from 50 years to 95 years. He was co-president of the
Union for Europe of the Nations until 2009, when Fianna Fáil joined the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group (ALDE) group. He was a member of the ALDE group in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. In June 2011, Crowley refused to release details of his expense and allowance claims as a member of the European Parliament. Again in July 2011, Crowley declared to Fianna Fáil party colleagues, that he was available to run for the presidency, but had been advised by party colleague Fianna Fáil TD
Willie O'Dea not to seek his party's nomination. Party leader
Micheál Martin opted not to run any candidate but preferred to focus on rebuilding the party after the general election earlier that year which saw the party lose 58 seats. In the context of failure to be nominated for the presidential election by his party, Crowley withdrew his candidature for the nomination. From 2011 to 2013, Crowley had trouble with
sores on his legs arising from his paralysis. These required repeated treatment which kept him out of the public eye. In June 2014, he joined the
European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, against the wishes of the Fianna Fáil leadership. He lost the Fianna Fáil party whip on 24 June 2014. Fianna Fáil stated that the principles of the ECR group were incompatible with the party. In December 2015, concerns were raised about Crowley's frequent absence from the European Parliament due to ill health. A news report in May 2016 stated that Crowley had failed to attend any votes since being re-elected over two years previously. In March 2018, Politico Europe included him in their list of "The 20 MEPs who matter, for the wrong reasons". In June 2018, the
Irish Examiner reported that Crowley had not voted in the Parliament since his re-election on 2014. He did not cast a single vote in the 2014 to 2019 session. On 17 January 2019, Crowley announced at a news conference that he would not seek re-election in the
European elections in May 2019, and would be retiring from public life. ==Death==