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Politeia Newsletter 46 - October 2007
After the light Politeia Summer Special on Europe Day in June, it is time for a more serious topic now. The quarterly theme of this Politeia Newsletter is 'Euroscepticism in Europe'. What does this actually mean and does it exist? Thanks to several individuals and organisations we are able to present an overview of the situation on euroscepticicism in different European countries.
EUDemocrats start with their definition of euroscepticism, followed by a contribution of the Independence/Democratic Group that hold seats in the European Parliament. Attac formulated 5 reasons why they lobbied against the European Constitution. After this, we have descriptions of the situation in Britain, Poland, Croatia and Bulgaria, followed by an insight of the discussion around upcoming European Parliamentary elections in Romania. Finally, the Dutch Socialist Party explains why the Dutch voters deserve a referendum on the new European Treaty, while the UK Independence Party gives its opinion on latest developments in the European Union.*
By discussing euroscepticism the EuroBarometer needs to be mentioned as well. Most readers probably already know this survey, which is carried out twice a year in all EU member countries plus Croatia, Turkey, and the Turkish part of Cyprus that is not represented by the Republic of Cyprus. Several questions are being asked, among which questions about the opinion on the EU. In this survey Slovenia and Ireland can be considered optimistic, while Hungaria and France are more pessimistic. A very interesting result in the last survey of June 2007 that might say something about the general mood in the European Union is that on the EU 27 average only 22 % of the interviewed think that people in their country are well informed about European political affairs. Does this lack of information lead to increasing euroscepticism? Give your opinion by filling in the poll at the Politeia website. More information about the EuroBarometer can be found here.
Apart from articles for the Quarterly Theme, you can also read something about youth projects in the Netherlands and a project that aims to stimulate democracy in Georgia in the Politeia News section, conferences in the Agenda and interesting books and articles in the Recently Published section.
Enjoy reading Politeia Newsletter 46 – October 2007! For more information visit our website www.politeia.net.
Suzanne Jansen, IPP (Dutch Centre for Political Participation)
* It needs to be noted that, as with all contributions, Politeia does not necessarily support the content of these articles.
- Roumen Avramov, Communal Capitalism: Reflections on Bulgarian Economic Past (Sofia: Centre for Liberal Strategies, 2007).
Editors:
Ivo Hartman (Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek, the Netherlands)
Suzanne Jansen (Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek, the Netherlands)
Tatjana Meijvogel-Volk (Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek, the Netherlands)
Contributors:
Todor Arpad (Pro Democracy Association, Romania)
Harry van Bommel (Socialist Party, the Netherlands)
Willem Bos (Attac, the Netherlands)
Annabelle Fuller (UK Independence Party)
Georgy Ganev (Centre for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria)
Suzanne Jansen (IPP, Dutch Centre for Political Participation)
Jérôme Scheltens (IPP, Dutch Centre for Political Participation)
Menno Spiering (European Studies, University of Amsterdam)
Jan van Steenbergen
Gawain Towler (Independence/Democacy Group)
Géraud de Ville (EUDemocrats)
Contributions for the next Politeia Newsletter can be send until 10 December 2007 to:
Politeia Newsletter
Ms. Suzanne Jansen
E-mail: s.jansen@politeia.net
Website: www.politeia.net
Next issue: December 2007
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