Tracking: European parliament elections 2009 (XIX)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are looking for broader and up-to-date information on the 2009 EP elections, I recommend starting with my Overview article covering all my articles on the 2009 European parliamentary elections between July 2008 and the day you have come to this article.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Czech Prime Minister has proposed to form a (eurosceptical) conservative faction within the European Parliament after the 2009 elections. It sounds like, for him, the European Peoples Party (EPP) is not critical enough towards the European Union - but I have doubts that his proposal (i.e. to merge with the British Conservatives in one faction) will be realised.

The Centre for the Advancement of Women in Politics argues that more female candidates for the European Parliament elections would raise the interest of women in the process.

Maybe more effecient will be the merger of elections dates. The United Kingdom, like Ireland, will probably have local and European elections on the same day. The only problem can be that this will lead to a mixture of European and local issues during the campaigns, which could lead to the effect that one of the sides will receive considerably less attention - by the media and thereby by the citizens.

In order to raise participation, British liberal democrat Andrew Duff is proposing to lower the voting age for the EP elections to 16 years for the next vote in 2014. However, looking at the recent Eurobarometer report, it seems to me that the effect could be marginal given the lower interest rate of youngsters in the election process. Duff also puts forward transnational party lists, an issue I don't see much agreement on in today's state of the European Union.

------------------------------
Under the category "Tracking: European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.