Update
In a comment to this article, Adrian Moraru who is working at IPP on the "How active is your MEP"-project informs that they have secured funds and that it will continue its work.
Good news, indeed!
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Last month, EurActive told that IPP's "How active is your MEP", a very valuable tool I have discussed in August, might well be closed in the near future due to funding problems - which would be a pity, especially before the European Parliament elections.
In a letter to the editor of EurActive, Sara Hagemann of the European Policy Centre informs, in reaction to the article on the shutdown of "How active is your MEP", about a new project called votewatch.eu, which should be active soon:
"Our VoteWatchEU project will provide updated information on all 785 MEPs’ voting records, presenting details on how they have voted within various policy areas. In a nutshell, VoteWatchEU will make it possible to look up one’s local MEP and see what he/she stands for, get various rankings for the most pro-/anti track records within the different areas, and find out when and how coalitions form between different political groups or between specific nationalities.If this project will work out, I would be more than glad to use it, although it is quite typical that one very good initiative like the Romanian "How active is your MEP" will be replaced by a new initiative, instead of combining activities and funding in order not to double work, not to waste time and money, and in order to focus attention to one single project.
All of this happens on the basis of a multi-sponsor approach, whereby a network of interests and expertise provide the necessary professional input to develop a highly sophisticated website and related activities. Also, since this project is closely linked to a number of national capitals, particular interests either in the Brussels ‘bubble’ or in national politics will not able to affect the content of the project."
Nevertheless, I am looking forward to votewatch.eu, because if it works, it should add to the transparency of the European Union and its parliament - and there is never enough transparency of democratic institutions!
(originally posted: 04 January 2009, 00:51)
5 comments:
Dear Julien,
As I have read the post in Euractiv but I can not reply there (the aproval of the post got stuck) I will make this one here, just for the record.
Dear Sara,
I am the one behind the project. And still with IPP. So I do not know who fooled you that is a founder of the website.
We are NOT closing the website. We have secured funds and now working on ajax GUI that it will be much user frendly. More like an stock exchange tracker that you can customise yourself.
Best of luck for your initiative anyhow. There is room for anybody, especially in the election year.
Adrian
Mulțumesc, Adrian, este un anunţ foarte plăcut!
Adrian, congratulations for the funding. Still, I find this story a bit confusing.
What do you think of this new EPC project? Will there be two similar pages in the end? Since none of the pages is working at the moment I am also wondering when they will go online?
What would be great is a robust API. Look what the NYT does with US congress roll call votes: http://is.gd/eTuV
Interesting initiative(s). I wonder if it is related to http://www.foeeurope.org/euvotewatch/.
Meanwhile, you can follow your MEPs on www.epvote.eu... with no funds :)
Laurent
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