Pro-Europe D-66 and Greens gain in Dutch EU-Parliamentary elections as does radical right-wing party of Geert Wilders

EU-Digest

Pro-Europe D-66 and Greens gain in Dutch EU-Parliamentary elections as does the radical right-wing party of Geert Wilders

The pro Europe D-66 and Groen Links (Greens) where among the major winners of the European parliamentary elections which kicked off in the Netherlands and Britain yesterday and will be held throughout the 27 member EU member states until June 7. Over 375 million people are eligible to take part in the elections, which will roll out across Europe. Most of the 27 EU nations vote on Sunday. The success of these biggest-ever transnational elections is feared to be tempered by voter worries about national economic troubles rather than European perspectives. As a result, extremist anti-EU right-and possibly also some left-wing parties hope to pick up votes. Mario Telo, who heads the European Studies Institute at Brussels Free University, said: "This risk exists, as it did in the 1930s, even if the difference is that the extreme right will not have a direct political impact, but the trend "will show that the national political crisis is dire. Corruption, scandals and the quest for scapegoats risk bogging down European democracies, which will have to find the strength to react." The Dutch results also show that the Christian Democrats (CDA) of Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende remained the leading party of the Netherlands, even though they lost two of their 7 European Parliamentary seats.

Despite the economic crisis the European People's Party -- an umbrella group for center-right parties from across the EU -- is set to remain the biggest political bloc in the parliament with 262 seats. The Socialists are expected to remain in second place with 194 seats. Cyprus, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia will go to the polls on Saturday before Europe's Super Sunday, when the other 19 EU nations -- including France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- round off the voting.

nrc.nl - European elections 2009 - 'The feeling is that Europe has saved France from crisis' - by Marc Leijendekker

For the complete report from the nrc.nl click on this link

European elections 2009 - 'The feeling is that Europe has saved France from crisis' - by Marc Leijendekker

There is a widespread feeling that Europe and the euro have protected France from the financial crisis. Of course we have some technical issues, over fishery for example. And some people continue to make fun of bureaucrats in Brussels who want to decide the size of goat cheese. But that has not increased. There is no feeling of malaise." In matters of diplomacy and defense, the French support a more European approach.

EurActiv.com - Few EU expats to vote locally in June elections

For the complete report from EurActiv.com click on this link

Few EU expats to vote locally in June elections

Since the introduction of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, EU citizens residing in other member states have been entitled to vote in elections to the European Parliament. But in 20 of the 27 countries, only a few of them have registered to do so, EurActiv has learned.In Poland, only 313 foreigners have registered to vote in the EU elections in June, Polish national radio reported: a mere 3% of the 10,000 EU citizens who have taken up permanent residency in the country. In Greece, the situation is slightly more positive. 6,505 citizens have registered, out of 140,000 identified in the last census in 2001, according to Interior Ministry figures. Belgium, home to the European institutions, does not fare much better, as just 11.18% of EU citizens living there have registered to vote (66,203 out of 592,390), according to the country's electoral office. The situation is similar in Sweden, whose electoral authority, Valmyndigheten, noted two weeks before the list's closing date that 219,000 foreign EU citizens of voting age reside in the country. But of these, only 37,000 had taken up their right to vote there.

The EU Voter Profiler - Who knows, the EU might also one day find "their own Obama" ?

EU-Digest

Who knows, the EU might also one day find "their own Obama" ?

A team of prominent EU scholars from the European University Institute(Florence), Kieskompas, a Dutch company that has made similar tools in the past, and the Zurich-based NCCR Democracy/Politools network, last week unveiled the 'EU Profiler', an innovative 'voting advice' website that allows EU citizens across Europe to figure out their their political identity based on a variety of simple questions ahead of the upcoming European Parliament elections in June. Most of the 300 million European voters have no idea for which party they should vote based on their preferences and consequently had not been very interested to vote in the past. But an antidote was developed for this apathy: a "Voting Profiler" to guide the voter through the maze of European ideas, preferences and political parties.

It probably all started with the recent elections in the US, when Europeans proved quite willing to take a position about issues which were not exactly relevant to them or Europe, such as the pros and cons of electing a black president. As a result it turned out that a record number of curious Europeans also consulted the many electronic US voter profilers. Seen in this light, European polling and survey experts figured that the elections for the European Parliament - on 4 June - probably in one way or the other also closely resemble the elections in the United States and that a European Voter Profiler would also do well in getting European voters more interested in the EU parliamentary elections.

The EU Profiler has hit the road running and is becoming very popular. The creators regard it as the Holy Grail of profilers "since it enables you to line up the views of all the European parties alongside each other, without any need for background knowledge", says Amsterdam political scientist André Krouwel, one of the minds behind the EU Profiler.

The EU Profiler is certainly worth a shot, but you have got to be open-minded and prepared for surprises. Remember that we're talking about more than 700 seats in the European Parliament, divided among 27 different countries. When we spoke to a voter who did the EU Profiler test in Holland, he told us that the test had showed him that some political parties in other EU member states came closer to his own political viewpoints than his home grown parties. He said that to him that meant that many local political parties in Holland did not take the time to listen to their voters anymore. When we asked him for which party he would vote for this time around, he said that a party in Italy and one in the Czech Republic matched his profile the best, but that he wasn't sure yet.

To go to the EU Voter Profiler and figure out where you fit in on the EU political spectrum click on this link

Time Magazine: How One Man Plans to Sink the European Union - by Leo Cendrowicz

For the complete report from TIME magazine click on this link

How One Man Plans to Sink the European Union - by Leo Cendrowicz

A self-made millionaire, Ganley plans to field Libertas candidates from all 27 E.U. member states in this June's European parliamentary elections. His party, he says, will bring change to Brussels. "We can really shake things up," he says. "We can send a message to Brussels for democracy, accountability and transparency in European governance."

That kind of attitude has long characterized so-called Euro-skepticism. But Ganley's money and political ambition has some rattled. Like other Euro MPs, British Liberal Democrat member of the European Parliament Andrew Duff dismisses Ganley as a rabble-rouser out for publicity. "It's utter balls to say he represents democracy," Duff says. "Scratch the surface and you'll discover he's a demagogue and a Europhobe." But Duff is also worried that Ganley could appeal to disgruntled European voters. "There is a real danger that this simplistic populism will strike a chord with voters that are profoundly uninformed about the E.U.," Duff says.

With a personal fortune estimated at $300 million, Ganley has plenty of money to bankroll his new party. To hone his message, he has hired American Democratic campaign consultant Joe Trippi. Ganley talks of Libertas winning 70 seats in the 736-member European Parliament, more than enough to become a powerbroker between the other political groups. The only E.U.-wide poll, predict09.eu, suggests that Libertas could win a few seats but will fall well short of its stated goal.

Note EU-Digest: Even though it seems Libertas will not have much of an impact on the EU elections it shows the weakness of the European Union democratic structure and lack of public participation in its development process. Consequently "radical populists" like Declan Ganley, Geert Wilders and others are popping up all over the European political spectrum. Therefore the European political establishment, mainly dominated by fake socialists, fake conservatives and fake greens better watch out. Populist politicians could very well become the newest and best-selling European "fakes".

EurActiv.com - EU Elections 09 - Eurosceptics will not gain ground in EU elections

For the complete report from EurActiv.com click on this link

EU Elections 09: Eurosceptics will not gain ground in EU elections

One of the youngest MEPs in the European Parliament, German liberal Alexander Alvaro, told EurActiv in an interview that Eurosceptics will try to gain ground at the European elections next June, but will not succeed "because in times of crisis, voters do not want to try new experiments". Alvaro pointed out that local elections on the same day will cause more people to cast their ballot. But enlargement and recent referenda in Ireland, France and the Netherlands have also boosted interest in the European Union, Alvaro maintains. "People are more aware that the Union exists," he said, underlining the growing interest of young people in issues discussed at intergovernmental and international level. "They see that only if we are united can we fight climate change [or] work on the energy crisis, on the financial crisis [or] be of substantial help in Gaza," the MEP said.

"I think that the voters have realized that the European Union is their political future, and they want to become involved," he added.For the first time, social media will allow candidates to create more direct links with their electorate. But "Europeans are not Americans," stressed Alvaro, who is gathering supporters on online social networking service Facebook. According to the German MEP, Europeans are still more interested in picking up a newspaper. "We are going to give it a try, but it will surely have a different impact than the one we saw in the US elections. We just have different cultural ways of doing political campaigning," he said.