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epolitik — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:47:00 +0200

While waiting for the first results at 6 pm you could

+ click through our blog's categories Crossing Europe A - Z, Parties And Parliament and Picked Up and read what we have posted in the last weeks

+ have a look how Cafébabel.com covered the European election

+ get entertained by the European parliament on Twitter and its own website.

Spain | Philosophers on the Rise

epolitik — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:28:00 +0200

Spain’s political system favours two long-time established parties, the People’s Party and the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party). Next to these two, there exist some smaller parties, who especially cover regional topics of the independence-minded Catalonian and Basque region. Since September 2007, this has changed. A new party has emerged: the UPD (Unity, Progress, and Democracy) arose from the Basque people’s movement ¡Basta Ya! (“That’s enough!”) which had turned against the Basque terrorism and the way the President Zapatero’s government dealt with it. In December 2000, the movement has won the Sakharov prize for the defence of human rights and freedoms awarded by the European Parliament.

Many leading Spanish intellectuals, for example the philosophers Fernando Savater and Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, support the young party. Rosa Díez, former member of the Socialist party and of the European Parliament, is now the party’s front-runner. The experienced politician wants change the firmly established structure of the political system so that smaller parties like the UPD will be more successful. At the 2008 parliament elections, the party gained 1.19% of the votes. The European Parliament elections are now the next big test for how well the new party has been able to rally support within the Spanish people.

Slovenia | Conflict with Croatia

epolitik — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:43:00 +0200

Slovenia's European election campaign missed any European aspects stated an Austrian newspaper. As in other member states, the financial crisis was a big deal. Moreover, unsolved border issues with Croatia dominated, as usual, the discussions. These problems are not well known within the EU, but postponed accession talks with Croatia this year. Both countries are arguing mainly about the line of demarcation in Piran bay. This all leads to tension between people from both countries. While some Croatians want to boycott Slovenian goods, Slovenians feel validated in judging the others as arrogant and snobbish.

Piran bay.

Picture is reserved under a Creative Commons Licence (shaggyshoo/flickr).

Portugal | Ejaculatory Prayers Heavenwards

epolitik — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:48:00 +0200

The weather forecast for Portugal on Sunday, the 7th of June: Clouds are covering the sky, with a temperature of 12 to 16 degrees. The chance of rain: 74 percent. So, if you want a shiny weekend, all the Portuguese should pray in sunday's worship. May be, they also should light a candle for the closing of the European Election in the afternoon.

The politicians are worried about a low turnout - like many of their colleagues in the other countries like Slovakia, Poland, Ireland, ... ! Therefore, they started a big campaign in the last couple of days - and hope, that their work will influence the voter's choice. But bad weather and the missing enthusiasm of the Portugues for the European Union and the elections, they also should light a candle in the church.

Image is preserved under a Creative-Commons-Licence (dynamosquito/flickr).

Motivation, Part II

epolitik — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:04:00 +0200

Even from outer space, they call us to vote...

Sweden | Potpourri

epolitik — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:33:00 +0200

Here what came to my mind while thinking about Sweden and the upcoming elections. Just extend this list if you'd like:

Snow storms in April | EU presidency from July to December 2009 | A handsome prince | Furniture with do-it-yourself assembly instructions | Funny city names (at least for a German girl.. sorry): UPPSALA rocked already years ago | Not only elks on street signs but also cats | Swedish Jack Sparrows capturing politics | Köttbullar and potatos | Red hair and red houses | High-class music: Mando Diao for the dancers, Kristofer Astrom for the dreamers

Photos are private or reserved under a Creative Commons Licence. All by flickr: Pippi/CDrewing, inbus/hmboo, snow/-12C, köttbullar/incinerator, house/kreativkind.

Poland | Black candidate runs for European Parliament

epolitik — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:49:00 +0200

The representation of minorities is often adopted by members of the European Parliament, who belong to the majority in ethnic and religious respects. Although millions of Europeans are coloured, just a few deputies are black for instance, concerning notably Nirj Deva, Syed Kamall or Sajjad Karim (all for the United Kingdom).

Patrick Kibangou, born in Congo, is an engineer who lives in Poland for over 29 years taking polish citizenship. His father was a French Senator. Even though his chances to get elected are remote, because of not being placed on the top of the list of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), he shows ambitious courage.

Lithuania | The EU Karate-Lady

epolitik — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:48:00 +0200

European Union budget commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite won Lithuania’s presidential elections on May 18th 2009. The independent candidate won with over 66% of the vote. The country has been hit very hard by the crisis; this is why the Lithuanians elected someone experienced in economic and financial matters. Grybauskaite is the first female president in the history of Lithuania but nobody would doubt that she’s able to handle the situation. Already being compared to Magret Thatcher, the “iron lady”, Grybauskaite shows her personal strength with a black belt in Karate. Which by the way, in combination with her excellent proficiency in Russian, could help to improve the country’s relations to Russia.

Her government will definitely not be euro-sceptic. Still, only 40 % of the Lithuanians plan to participate in the European elections. Maybe the Lithuanian citizens feel that they have now a perfect representative in Brussels: a woman who knows her way around in the EU and at the same time has the possibility to advocate Lithuanian interests in the Council of the European Union – the institution which most people consider to be more important than the European parliament.

Slovakia | Singing Tail-Light

epolitik — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:32:00 +0200

What a battle: On October the 15th, Poland beat Slovakia in the FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualifiying Match with 2 goals to 1, with a spectacular turn in the 85th and 86th minute by Stanislav Sestak, striker of the German football club VFL Bochum. Currently Slovakia (12 points) is two points ahead of Poland (10 points) in the chart.

On June 7th, the two countries will fight a totally different battle in a totally different qualifying modus: Who will be the tail-light in the European Parliament Elections 2009? In 2004, Slovakia had the least voter participation of all countries, with just 17 percent. Followed by Poland with 21 percent.

Old Town Hall in Bratislava

After all the effort the Slovakian Government doesn´t want a reprise like in 2004. Róbert Hajšel, chairman of the information office of the European Parliament in Bratislava, said, it was the saddest statement in the whole history of European Elections. His explanation: “If you fully trust and support something, you don’t want to change it and if you don’t want to change it, you don’t care to come and vote.”.

Nevertheless, the Slovaks tried to do the best preparation for June the 7th, with the help of a new star in the country’s entertainment business. The 17-year-old Viera Berkyova won the show “Slovakias Next Superstar” in 2008 and wowed the crowd with a special song – about the European currency, the Euro. The song became an unexpected major hit in the charts. May be a good sign for the votes next Sunday – and an appropriate instrument to get the Slovaks ready for the election, too.

Images are preserved under a Creative-Commons-Licence (roblisameehan/flickr and iandanielbrown/flickr).

Romania | Party time in Parliament?

epolitik — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:52:00 +0200

Just look at these photos. What do you think who this woman is?
''- An It-Girl?''
Yes.
''- Romania's Paris Hilton?''
Yes.
''- Someone with maybe wealthy or prominent parents?''
Yes.

It is Elena, daughter of Romania's president Traian Basescu. And guess now what comes next? RIGHT: 28-year-old Elena Basescu is a candidate in the upcoming European elections. There will be more than 750 MEP in the new parliament so why not having a sexy female disco queen among them?

Latvia | To be or not to be

epolitik — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:58:00 +0200

Concerning our nationality we have no choice. The exception proves the rule. Nearly 400.000 Russians in Latvia are the exception. 17 percent of the whole population. They are non-Latvians. Non-citizens. Stateless. Or at least faceless.

Latvia´s government - after the independance from the former USSR - in 1991 decided that just all those people are Latvian citizens who were born before 1940 in Latvia or are originated from this generation. Hundreds of thousands of Russians, immigrated during the period of the Russian occupation and annexation, were abruptly excluded. Visibly marked with a separate ID card. Although lots of them were even born in Latvia in the meantime.

A so called naturalisation procedure to integrate these people was started in 1995, calling for special standards. Applicants for citizenship had, and still have, to know the Latvian constitution and history and have to speak Latvian - sounds obligatory, but it´s not in generations born and raised in Russian occupied Latvia. It was common and adequate to speak Russian. So what are they? Culprits? Victims? Or maybe just a failure of history.

Nevertheless a failure of history corrigible by the European Commission? No. Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the Commission, in February 2009 declared: "The participation in elections of people who are not nationals of an EU country, and are therefore not EU citizens, is not an issue covered by Community law. The Commission therefore cannot talk to Latvia regarding the issue of these people’s participation in local elections. It is up to the Member States to decide such issues."

Nonetheless they are facing a wide range of personal rights today, they are not allowed to vote - not in national elections nor in communal ones. No citizen, not vote. No state citizen, no European citizen. No citizen, no European citizen, no vote in the European Parliament election. But born in Latvia. Member of the European Union. And so kind of European...

Netherlands | A salamander on the ballot

epolitik — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:48:00 +0200

Have you ever tried to turn a map of Europe upside down? Maybe you'll see a salamander just as Franck Bianchari did. The reptile became Newropeans' icon. Newropeans claims to be the first truly pan-European political party. Its members' aim was to run for this year's European Parliament election in all European Union member states simultaneously. But they only campaign now in three countries: in Germany, France - and in the Netherlands.

It's all about Motivation

epolitik — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:02:00 +0200

Everyone’s complaining that the EU has a legitimacy problem. More and more is being regulated from the European commission in Brussels and its huge bureaucratic machine – and national parliaments and administrations seem simply having to follow the EU Directives. It is even a bigger problem though that a lot of people don’t want to use the little influence they could have in the European political system. May it be for the reason to protest against the current situation – or, more likely because of a mixture of indifference, ignorance and dullness. To bring the second group to the ballot boxes, no cost and effort was too great. Here some of the actions which were taken to motivate the European citizens to participate:

The European parliament launched a multilingual online television station, called europarlTV, which covers everything in Europe from agriculture to women’s rights. In the categories Your Parliament, Your Voice, Young Europe and Parliament Live you can find all kinds of information on the political system as well as news about ongoing events and citizens speaking up. First of all, you can find here the official TV spot for the European elections which exists in 34 languages and is being broadcasted all over Europe on television, in cinemas and on the web.

In the last European elections, only 18 % of the 18-25 years old voted. To bring about a change to low participation, there’s much attention being given to the youth in the EU elections campaign. For example, the Charlemagne Youth Prize has been awarded some days ago. This competition asked for projects which foster a shared sense of European identity among young people. The winner is the Polish project “Yourope needs You” and was designed by the members of the European student’s forum, AEGEE.

MTV’s campaign “Can you hear me Europe?” works in the same way. Set up as a competition, the incentive to take part is also to win a prize. MTV wants to raise the awareness of the European elections rather by a big shout than a complex learning process. In Prague, Berlin, Rome and other European cities people came together to simply shout out their support for Europe – and also to win a ticket for a major MTV event.

Irish support for the Lisbon treaty is growing

epolitik — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:15:00 +0200

After the failure of the European constitution, a second attempt has been made with the treaty of Lisbon to reform the structure of the European Union. So far, twenty-six out of twenty-seven members of the Union have ratified the new treaty. There’s only one missing - Ireland. The Irish constitution prescribes a referendum for the ratification of the treaty, and the Irish people decided to vote against it in June 2008. Due to the rejection, some minor changes have been made on the treaty, amongst other things it has been decided that every country will keep its own commissioner.

Europe’s future is up in the air until this second referendum has been held – originally planned for December 2009, it now seems like the Irish government tends to an earlier date. As a result of the strong influence of the world economic crisis on the country, public opinion turned in favour of the European Union. To take advantage of this, the next referendum is supposed to take place much sooner than expected, maybe even linked to the elections for the European parliament.

When talking about the Irish “No”, one must also mention a prominent figure that not only influenced the Irish referendum but also plays a role in the EU election campaign. It is Declan Ganley who I’m talking about. The Irish businessman and multimillionaire funded the campaign against the Lisbon treaty and now has founded the Euro-sceptical party Libertas. As a qualification for the EP elections, a party has to nominate candidates in at least seven European countries. Libertas has met this condition in February 2009. However soon afterwards, two of the candidates, Igor Gräzin and Mincho Hristov, denied being members of the party. Hans-Gerd Pöttering, president of the European parliament, has induced inquiries which are still ongoing.

In addition, Libertas does not meet the national conditions for the EP elections in all countries. In Germany, 4000 signatures would have been needed for an approval, yet only 3500 had been collected. Instead, Libertas forms alliances with small national parties. In Germany it is the Christian AUF-Partei (Party for Labour, Environment and Family) who plays this role. Last week Declan Ganley came to Frankfurt to launch the campaign – and guess who else was there? Eva Herman, a German author and journalist, known for dubiously approving statements about the Nazi’s family policies. Will this prominent assistance help Libertas to gain more support in Germany...? I rather doubt it.

More transparency for deputies

epolitik — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:55:00 +0200

What is the deputy I am voted for really doing in the European parliament? Two websites try to close this information gap. While Votewatch.eu is providing pure figure and datas, Parlorama.eu judges the MEP's activities. You can read more about this last project here.

Hungary | A borderless country?

epolitik — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:32:00 +0200

It´s Pécs. Pécs, fifth-largest city of Hungary, was elected the European Capital of Culture 2010 (together with Essen, Germany and Istanbul, Turkey). It will try to present itself as a "borderless city [...] right in the middle of Europe".

The 10th of May Pécs was the focus of mayoral elections. The Socialists (MSZP), prevailing the city since 1998, lost control to the opposition Fidesz party. In Hungary, facing a deep recession in consequence of the Economic Crisis, this result definitely is an outlook on the European Parliament elections taking place the 7th of June. The Conservatives from the Fidesz party are prognosticated to win the majority of the 22 Hungarian seats in the EP. This could lead to quarrels in the MSZP and encourage discussions about snap elections.

We will see, if Hungary really is that open-minded towards European Policy and will keep it´s hopeful promises. Take a virtual tour through Europe´s Capital of Culture 2010 here.

Malta | Small State, Huge Responsibility

epolitik — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:39:00 +0200

The smallest state in the European Union has five seats in the European Parliament. Since March 2003, after a successful referendum – the Maltese voted 53:47 for the EU membership. The referendum was initialized by the government and denied by the oppositional labour party. But the leading National party couldn’t benefit from their actions: In 2004, the Government just won two seats, the oppositional labour party which was against the Maltese joining to the EU, achieved the other three seats.

Malta between skepticism and optimism

Is it a kind of European skepticism or a domestically Maltese phenomenon? Well, observers stated that the voters possibly expressed their discontentment with the leading National Party. In 2004, there was a special atmosphere at the election for the Maltese. But what could be expected for the European Election on the first weekend in June? The parties will fight for the voter’s voice to secure their influence in the European Parliament. Malta has the least number of seats in the EU and would profit by the new Lisbon treaty. But, because of Ireland’s “No”, their hopes on one more seat have dropped.

Questionable attitude towards refugees

But that’s just paper waste compared to the problems Malta has with immigrants by the sea and their way dealing with them. Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, has expressed his resentment about the situation of the refugees in March 2009. “The Maltese attitude towards the immigrants is racist and has to change immediately.” Since 2008, more than 2700 refugees entered Malta by sea and were housed in refugee camps with the worst reputation in the whole European Union. In January 2009, the United Nations (UN) has stated the conditions as “alarmingly”.

A glimpse of hope

But there are also good news, even in relation to the worldwide still underestimated situation for refugees at the European borders. Katrine Camilleri, a 37-year old lawyer, received in 2007 the most prestigious United Nations refugee award for her “tireless efforts” to lobby and advocate for refugees. Just two layers and two case workers try to help the refugees in their mostly unpromising situation. Camilleri has also helped to set up a study unit for law students at the University of Malta. There, the students could take cases and also get in contact with refugees and asylum seekers while helping them with their skilled knowledge.

What next Malta?

Good news indeed, but the situation in 2009 is still precarious. Malta has won a lot with their “Yes” to join the European Union in 2003: political influence in Europe and financial support by the Union. But they also have commitments towards the other members of the EU and a high responsibility as the new border in the south of the European Union. Malta will be in the focus in the next couple of years, especially with their handling of the refugee situation. Whoever will gain the majority of seats, he has the duty to act responsible thoughtful. Maybe the Maltese people are out for another surprise at this year’s European Election - and will support neither the National Party nor the Labour Party. The observers couldn’t tell.

Image is preserved under a Creative-Commons-Licence (marfis75/flickr).

Italy | Security bill passed some days before the election

epolitik — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:59:00 +0200

This week, Silvio Berlusconi's government won three confidence votes to pass a security law, which makes it easier to deport illegal immigrants among other things. Berlusconi's centre-right party promised to pass this bill during the legislative election campaign last year. Now, just some days before the European elections, it has passed the Italian chamber. Opposition leaders called this an "act of propaganda". In fact, the bill will ensure a majority approval among the voters. And Berlusconi's quarrel with his wife will be forgotten.

Luxembourg | Diplomatic Conflicts with the role model of the EU

epolitik — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:10:00 +0200

One of the smallest states in the European Union is back in the public news coverage, but not in the way they want to be. The reason: The latest utterances of the German Minister of Finance, Peer Steinbrück, about tax heavens in Europe and his mention of the grand duchy of Luxembourg.

The controversial discussions about the special financial possibilities in Luxembourg (and other states like Austria or Switzerland) and the harsh words from Germany cause an on-going diplomatic crisis in the European Union. Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker responded in an emotional way, but the Luxembourgers are too European to bear a grudge.

Integrated in the Benelux, Luxembourg is one of the grounding states of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957 and one of the most enthusiastic states concerning the European Union. The country is also known for the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Auditors.

A Luxembourger is Europe's leading politician

First and foremost, Juncker is the leading European politician. Under his governmental responsibility, Luxembourg administrated the Presidency of the European Council twice, 1997 and 2005. Juncker also received the German Karlspreis for special achievements concerning the European Union in 2006. Exactly 20 years after the award ceremony in Aachen, where the whole nation of Luxembourg received the award for their European attitude.

Well, and this years voter participation is expected to be in a fine tradition: Since 1979, between 87 and 90 per cent of the voters went to the elections of the European Parliament – one of the highest value in the whole Union. All the Luxembourgers are bent on voting and remain true to themselves, as a perfect example for the other members of the European Union.

The photo is reserved under a Creative Commons Licence (AlfonsoJiménez/flickr).

An axe, a scream, two votes

epolitik — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:41:00 +0200

We are not sure if we should comment that...Well, let's say it in a nice way: these videos could be better.