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UK Election Day : 4 June 2009
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
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.
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
European Health Insurance Card
Protection Of Cultural Heritage
Human rights throughout the world
Does the EU understand its own past?
Source: Euro Parliament
Europe’s 20th century left a continent shattered by World Wars and Fascism and Communism. As Western Europe recovered after 1945 and went on to build a European Union based on democracy and open markets, countries behind the Iron curtain endured Communist rule. A recent public hearing looked at life under Communism and how little it is understood in west. Two decades on from the fall of the Berlin Wall and with West and East united, we want your opinion: “Does the EU understand its own past?”
Does the EU understand its own past?
If EU countries have emerged from sharply contrasting experiences, not yet sufficiently understood by each other, what of the EU as such? The EU has its own history, one emphasising democracy, unity and peace, but as the EU has enlarged to encompass 27 member states, does that history fully encompass the historical experience of all its citizens, including all those who lived much of the period since the founding of the EU under totalitarian, authoritarian and undemocratic regimes?
As part of this effort to create a better understanding of European history, the hearing – ‘European Conscience and the Crimes of totalitarian Communism: 20 Years After’ – on March 18 in Brussels brought together MEPs, European governments and NGOs. The discussion focused on how Europe should reconcile itself to its totalitarian legacy. It came ahead of a resolution MEPs adopted on 2 April to call for 23 August to be a Europe-wide day of remembrance for victims of totalitarianism.
West is West and East is East: different perceptions
Estonia was one of the countries swept back into the Soviet Union at the end of the war. Estonian Christian Democrat MEP Tunne Kelam chaired one of the panels at the hearing. He told us that it still surprises many Western Europeans that in the ten years following World War II “1 million people were killed in Central and Eastern Europe liberated by the Soviets”.
The consequences of this are that “today there are 10 of millions of citizens in Central and Eastern Europe who have or whose parents have suffered whose sense of justice have not yet been satisfied”.
Hungarian Christian Democrat MEP György Schöpflin told the hearing that “the West regards this issue as irrelevant as it gets in the way of everyday business” and that “Communist crimes are less important than Nazi ones”. He said such an approach “eats away at East-West relations”.
“90% never heard of Gulag”
Camilla Andersson from the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism in Sweden told the hearing about public perceptions on Communism and Nazism. In a recent survey of students aged 15-20 it found that 90% had never heard of the Gulag whilst the same number were well informed about the Holocaust. In addition 40% believed that Communism had contributed to increased prosperity in the world.
For the Presidency of the EU, the Czech Europe Minister Alexandra Vondra said that “knowing our past is also an essential tool to teach our children how to avoid intolerance, extremism and the recurrence of totalitarian rule in the future”.
Emmanuel Zingeris for the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania commented: “This is not an issue of left or right, this is an issue of the fate of our nations and that of millions of victims. We should not equal Nazism and Communism; gas chambers were not the same as gulags.”
In Romania the secret police – the Securitate – were particularly notorious. Marius Oprea from the Institute for the Investigation of the Communist Crimes in Romania told those gathered that: “More than 10,000 people were shot without any sentence by the Securitate, and out of the 1 million political prisoners more than 10% were killed during detention.”
Day of remembrance for victims
MEPs in a resolution adopted on 2 April called on European governments to establish 23 August as a Europe-wide Remembrance Day for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. It would mark the date of the infamous Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939 which enslaved millions. In a resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism they say “there can be no reconciliation without truth and remembrance”. They want the past to be documented and archives opened.
What has Europe ever done for us?
Source: European Movement
The European Dream
source: Wise Enterprise
Nicolas Sarkozy “Turkey is not European!”
Later in the campaign - from 4-30 May - 3D installations based on similar themes and multimedia "Choice Boxes" will be placed in city squares or shopping centres.
Source: UK Office of the European Parliament [edited]
500 posters will be rolled out across London underground stations and bus shelters on Monday as the European Parliament kick starts its UK information campaign to raise awareness of the European elections in June.
The posters will encourage voters on 4 June to think about the choices that have to be made on issues that affect their everyday lives, such as energy, family life and consumer rights. The slogan for the campaign in the UK is: “It’s your choice!”
Dermot Scott, Head of the European Parliament’s UK Office, said “The European Parliament has powers over issues that affect our daily lives, so there are real choices to be made in the election. The campaign shows what some of those choices might be in the hope that this will encourage people to vote”.
A similar set of posters will also be unfurled on Monday in Edinburgh and then on Tuesday in Birmingham and Glasgow. Later in the campaign – from 4-30 May – 3D installations based on similar themes and multimedia “Choice Boxes” will be placed in city squares or shopping centres. The “Choice Boxes” will be a walk-in interactive multimedia booth in which voters will be able to record a video message giving their views and opinions on the choices facing the European Parliament.
The European Parliament’s UK Office is also organising an elections Roadshow which will travel round major British cities in the last two weeks of May.
Barroso: “Your opinion matters. What can Europe do for you?”
The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has lunched a web-survey – tellBarroso.eu – inviting all EU-citizens to post their opinion about the EU policy areas. The website suggests a direct intereaction between citizens and the President of the European Commission.
It is a simple and efficient way to use drag-and-drop fields and web ticks to find out more not only about social indicators, as well as new opinions and ideas. The institution behind this service is the Centre of European Studies.
The Centre told that “tellbarroso.eu poll invites Europeans into the political decision-making process aiming to put them back in the core of the European debate. This pioneer initiative is personally endorsed by Jose Manuel Barroso.”
The web site says that “This is a non-partisan, simple, web poll which revolves around the basic theme: ‘Your opinion matters. What can Europe do for you?’”
Barroso counts with your participation!
Access http://www.tellbarroso.eu/en/ and give your opinion!
Japan airlines recently tested biofuel-powered plane derived mainly from camelina. Virgin airlines tested a fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.
Airlines prepare for EU carbon trading scheme
source: EuroActive [edited]
A directive incorporating aviation into the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) entered into force today (2 February), obliging member states to put in place appropriate legislation within a year.
All flights landing or taking off from EU airports will have to buy CO2 allowances under the bloc’s cap-and-trade system under the new directive. Trading officially begins in 2012, while member states have a year to transpose the directive into national law.
Furthermore, each carrier operating flights to or from the EU will now have to submit a plan describing how it intends to monitor and report on emissions.
The directive aims to cap greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector to 3% below the 2004-2006 levels in 2012, increasing to 5% for the 2013-2020 period. Airlines will consequently have to purchase 15% of their allowances via auctions. The EU says auctioning revenues should be used to combat climate change at home and in the developing world, but eventually this is left to the discretion of individual member states.
The legislation was endorsed by EU justice ministers in October 2008, despite strong criticism from airlines. They maintain the global downturn merits a reconsideration of carbon trading for the sector, which could compromise the industry’s profitability.
Nevertheless, the Commission insists that including aviation in the scheme is key if the bloc is to attain its climate goals. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called on the sector to make a “fair” contribution to the effort, as greenhouse gas emissions are increasing faster in international air transport than any other sector in the EU.
According to new figuresexternal from Eurostat, the number of air passengers grew by 7% in 2007 compared to the previous year. New member states including Romania and Poland experienced the largest hikes, while the UK and Germany, which registered the highest overall numbers of passengers, reported much lower growth percentages.
The EU has pledged to increase its emissions reduction target to 30% in 2020 in the event that a new international climate agreement commits other industrialised nations to similar measures. Speaking in December 2008, Dimas said aviation should therefore also play its part, claiming that the sector’s growth is not currently sustainable.
“By including aviation in the EU ETS, the EU is demonstrating leadership in addressing emissions from aviation, but we are also underlining our openness to continue a dialogue towards a global scheme. As is expressly recognised in the legislation, our ultimate goal is to get an effective global agreement to reduce emissions from aviation, and for this reason we are advocating the inclusion of emissions from aviation in the agreement to be reached in Copenhagen,” the commissioner said.
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