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The European Parliament is the only directly-elected body of the European Union. The Members of the European Parliament are there to represent you, the citizen. The European Parliament channel offers you insights into the parliament´s work and show you which of our activities and decisions affect your daily life.
You are invited to be informed and also create awareness for the upcoming elections as well as to interact with others from all European countries.
Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/EuropeanParliament
Submit your videos, vote on the big issues or simply browse the archive… Questions for Europe is a channel dedicated to the European elections.
Questions for Europe is an interactive channel about the upcoming european election. From the 4th-7th of June, Europeans will be choosing their new parliament. It will be the biggest transnational vote in history, and euronews will be giving you the chance to have your say on the issues that matter. A selection of users´ videos will be also aired on euronews.
Users can look up MEPs' individual voting records or access voting data according to nationality or political group affiliation.
Source: EurActiv [edited]
Citizens will be able to track the voting records of their MEPs ahead of next elections following the launch of a new website making such details easily accessible to the public. VoteWatch.eu was developed by political scientists from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Free University of Brussels (ULB). Those involved include Sara Hagemann of the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think-tank, LSE professor Simon Hix, Doru Frantescu of the Qvorum Institute in Bucharest and Adbul G. Noury, associate professor of economics at ULB.
VoteWatch.eu is described as a “not-for-profit organisation” supported by the Open Society Institute, an NGO, Burson Marsteller, a consultancy, and Electionmall.com. The VoteWatch.eu project – which seeks to boost the transparency of EU decision-making and improve the quality of debate – collates publicly available attendance, voting and activity data on MEPs on a single, searchable portal.
The project “provides detailed information about parliamentarians’ voting records and formal political activities – from committee work to parliamentary reports – and includes easy-to-access information on the political coalitions that are formed around policy issues,” reads a statement on the website. “We’re not campaign-oriented, party-political, or receiving any money from the EU institutions or government organisations,” explained project leader Sara Hagemann of the European Policy Centre (EPC), a Brussels-based think-tank. “All the info is publicly available, but it’s difficult to find. We’ve collated it all,” she said.
Users can look up MEPs’ individual voting records or access voting data according to nationality or political group affiliation. The search tool allows users to identify whether an MEP voted with or against his or her government or political group’s line on a particular issue.
“Cohesion scores” displayed alongside the results allow for comparisons with members’ previous votes on similar issues or alignment with the party line, allowing users to track how the positions of their MEP or a political group have evolved over the years. “There are shifting coalitions in the European Parliament, just like the shifting coalitions in the US Congress,” said Simon Hix of the London School of Economics, another of the site’s developers.
‘No naming and shaming’
The information on VoteWatch.eu is purely objective. “This is not a naming-and-shaming site, and I think it’ll be difficult to use the site for this. It is not subject to any editorial manipulation. It means people can now use the information that the Parliament is providing. Before, this was not the case.” One drawback of the website is that it can only track roll-call votes, and not electronic or show-of-hands ones. “But all the most important votes, and all those that involve lobbying, are roll-call,” Hix said.
Site ‘must not hide’ EU institutions’ failings
But EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros warned that the initiative must not be allowed to hide the European Parliament’s own communication troubles, and especially not those of the Council. “Citizens will not be satisfied until all legislative deliberation is made public,” said Diamandouros, expressing his belief that with the upcoming Swedish EU Presidency committed to improving transparency, the issue is “likely to acquire even more importance in the years to come”. .
Hailing the launch of the tool, EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros said the best way of increasing trust in the Union was to improve transparency of decision-making. “Lack of transparency in the legislative process, alongside difficulties in accessing documents, is by far the most common complaint I hear from citizens,” he said. “Transparency did not feature highly on the EU agenda until recently, but it’s at the forefront now. The Access to Documents Regulation was a key landmark, because it made openness the rule and secrecy the exception. But the situation is still far from perfect,” Diamandouros said.
Website on the European Elections
EU PROFILER : Useful site to help you place yourself politically in the european politics/spectrum
http://www.euprofiler.eu/page/1
New website on the European Elections: www.elections-europeennes.org/en, where you can explore…
Good reasons for going on vote – http://www.elections-europeennes.org/en/why_vote/choose/reasons_for_voting.php
The campaign in full swing – http://www.elections-europeennes.org/en/front_page/campaign/infos.php
When Europe vote – http://www.elections-europeennes.org/en/european_elections/specific_rules/map_european_elections.php
Voting procedure around Europe – http://www.elections-europeennes.org/en/european_elections/national_parties/map_national_parties.php
How many conferences or workshops have missed out on in the past because you simply did not know about them?
BrusselsAgenda is an event listing service for EU policy and affairs in Brussels and throughout the EU. It is a no-cost service that keeps EU players informed and allows governments, NGOs, community groups, regional authorities, etc. to publicise their events.
The service also allow those interested in EU affairs to improve their events and organisations. Among the services provided is an online subscribing list to collect attendees registrations and an assistance service to help associations to create and maintain their websites. Some services are paid, but many others are free of charge.
BrusselsAgenda fills a vacuum by offering an interactive and open platform where everyone can freely upload, publish on line and promote his or her events and receive alerts whenever a new event is published in a sector of interest. Most of all, BrusselsAgenda is an excelent web site to keep informed about future events and find related associations. Visit BrusselsAgenda at https://www.brusselsagenda.eu/profile/
"Unlike the national parliaments, the European Parliament is not dominated by one ruling coalition or party," stresses the researcher. "This allows autonomous, strategic decisions to be made on relevant issues according to specific principles, rather than being dictated by the strictures of partisan politics,"
Source: Euractiv [edited]
Author: Nicolaus Heinen, Researcher, Deutsche Bank
“Bringing citizens closer to Europe (and not bringing Europe closer to citizens) is the biggest challenge” of the upcoming elections to the European Parliament, argues Nicolaus Heinen of Deutsche Bank Research in an April paper.
From 4-7 June, over 375 million EU citizens from 27 member states will directly elect, for a legislative period of five years, 736 members of the European Parliament. But “these elections are being held for a parliament which is often unjustly labelled as insignificant and underestimated,” writes Heinen. “Since its first constituent sitting in 1958, the European Parliament has steadily gained in significance and competences,” he argues, pointing out that “over 40% of the national legislation passed in Germany is triggered by EU initiatives”. And “in areas such as agriculture or environmental policy, the share is close to 80%,” he adds.
“Unlike the national parliaments, the European Parliament is not dominated by one ruling coalition or party,” stresses the researcher. “This allows autonomous, strategic decisions to be made on relevant issues according to specific principles, rather than being dictated by the strictures of partisan politics,” he explains. “The public at large is not sufficiently aware of the European Parliament’s influence,” Heinen laments, while public interest in the EU assembly “has fallen over the past few years”.
Surveys indicate that the main issues in this election campaign are unemployment and economic growth, as well as inflation and purchasing power, the paper states. Even if these issues “are clearly dealt with at the national level, the Parliament has a relatively major say here,” says Heinen, giving three reasons for this:
* European legislation is a key factor in improving the functioning of the labour markets;
* Economic growth in itself cannot be controlled by politicians – but the latter can create a favourable environment by providing the right framework conditions;
* The European Parliament keeps a watchful eye [on inflation] at institutional level, for example via quarterly hearings of the president of the European Central Bank before its committee on economic and monetary affairs.
“These important areas of the European Parliament’s competence should be communicated to the public in clear and timely fashion in the run-up to the elections,” stresses Heinen. “This could help prevent the European elections from being used once again as a proxy for highlighting the shortcomings of national policies,” he concludes.
EU election and voting links released by JMECE Lab
JMECE Lab presents a selection of online sources aiming to share European Elections 2009 campaing onlne links and other useful EU websites. To access the publication, click here or download it from here http://www.box.net/shared/jbng3vkpk8
Sarkozy proposed to create a large joint economic area, noting that a similar concept might work to bind Russia closer to the EU.
Source: EuroActiv [edited]
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has strongly rejected German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s idea of a “privileged partnership” between the EU and Turkey, saying his country would not accept any alternative to full membership of the European Union.
Speaking at a gathering of young conservatives on 10 May, Merkel said it does not make sense for the EU to continuously expand if it leaves the Union unable to operate. She added that she would prefer Turkey to receive a privileged partnership from the EU, rather than full membership, echoing recent comments made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the launch of his EU election campaign (EurActiv 8/05/09).
At the same meeting, Sarkozy told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “We need a well-organised Europe [...] That means we cannot expand without borders. We shouldn’t make any empty promises to Turkey.” As an alternative, Sarkozy proposed to create a large joint economic area, noting that a similar concept might work to bind Russia closer to the EU.
The Turkish press expressed widespread dismay at the statements, made by the two EU leaders during a young CDU (Christian-Democrats) activists’ event. The daily Milliyet wrote that “Merkel has officially shocked Turkey”. Before being elected president in May 2007, Sarkozy frequently spoke out against Turkey’s EU accession, but softened his stance after his election (EurActiv 28/08/07). In the case of Germany, Merkel’s unfavourable view of Ankara’s accession is tempered by the more positive attitude of her foreign minister and Social Democratic coalition partner Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The French press, for its part, interpreted Merkel’s statements as a veiled attack on the UK Conservative party. “Those who refuse the Lisbon Treaty – which would allow us to work better and to take aboard new members – but who still talk about enlargement, we refuse to shake their hand,” the AFP agency quoted Merkel as saying.
The agency quotes an unidentified member of the French government as saying that Merkel was referring to the Conservative party led by David Cameron. The Eurosceptic tone adopted by the British Conservatives, who decided to leave the centre-right European People’s Party, is “worrying” Paris and Berlin, the source added.
UK Electoral Commission Hot Site – http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/default.aspx
ACCESS http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/ TO FIND OUT HOW TO VOTE IN UK
The 2009 European elections are a chance for the citizens to legitimize a powerful European Parliament that needs its Europeans.
Source: European Moviment [edited]
Mr Pat Cox, President of the European Movement, addressed the participants of the ELDR campaign launch for the 2009 European Parliament elections
Mr Pat Cox, President of the European Movement International (EMI), held a speech at the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) campaign launch for the 2009 European Parliament elections. Mr Cox contributed that Europe is currently experiencing a time of crisis while referring especially to the financial crisis generated through a lack of regulative measures. “Within this crisis it is important to offer the European citizens substance in our politics and a deep commitment to the earliest possible ratification of the Reform Treaty of Lisbon”, Mr Cox said. The crisis could be a chance for Europe to stand harmoniously together and to emerge even stronger.
Therefore “putting Europe into the European elections” and overcoming the national agenda is the main priority of the European Movement. The 2009 European elections are a chance for the citizens to legitimize a powerful European Parliament that needs its Europeans.
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