Site of the Month:
Euranet:
A network of 16 radio-stations from 13 EU-countries informs citizens through interviews and reports about the European Union.
Elections
The Active Citizenship/Voter Education Programme that is used by the VPSJ was adapted with permission from NETWORK Washington, who had their own American Voter Education Programme. The programme which was amended to meet the needs of Irish voters, is strictly non-party political, and has been very successful in encouraging people to register to vote and have their say in the democratic process. The programme which is 15 per cent presentation and 85 per cent participation is divided into three units. The first unit deals ‘Our Voices, Our Vote’, whilst the second unit covers ‘Issues’ and the third looks at ‘Candidates’.
June 2009 elections will be on the European Parliament in each of the 27 member states of the European Union. In 2004 the first European VoteMatch was launched, by answering 30 statements with ‘agree’, ‘don’t agree’ or ‘don’t know’ one could see what European party or fraction most met ones political preference. The European VoteMatch is still online at www.votematch.eu.
The European VoteMatch was modelled after the StemWijzer, the very successful political preference test in the Netherlands, developed over the past fifteen years into the most used internet site in election times, reaching more than 4.7 mln. users at the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, November 2006.
Because of the Croatian parliamentary elections of 25 November 2007, GONG organized a nation-wide campaign. It was officially announced in October, although certain activities were conducted in the months before. The GONG campaign for the parliamentary elections focused on educating and informing citizens, observing the overall election process and reporting on its course.
The Dutch government claims to believe that the new European Reform Treaty, intended to replace the rejected text, does not have 'constitutional' implications. This new treaty, they argue, would represent merely a routine series of amendments and in terms of style, content and magnitude would be completely different from the one against which we successfully campaigned in 2005. For these reasons our government sees no need for a second referendum on the treaty.
The forthcoming European Parliamentary elections should be an important political event, marking another step in Romanian’s long way to European integration. Besides receiving the more or less important European Commissioner for Multilingualism post for a bureaucrat, Romania would have its legitimated voice heard in European agora. Moreover, EU sounds excellent, the May 2007 Barometer of Public Opinion revealing that EU is the third institution as degree of trust after the Church and the Army. All in all, it should be an important event. Nevertheless, here we are, two months before the elections and any debate on European issues is absent. But this is only an apparent paradox. To become important, elections need to have both a political stake and issues to debate on, aspects that miss at the moment.
One of the most important political opportunities related to Romania’s accession to European Union is the task of organising the elections for choosing Romania’s future European Parliament representatives.