371 times: Thank you!

Europaportalen.se has published the list of 371 MEPs who declare that all EU citizens are potential pedophiles (background here & here).

Shouldn't we now all thank those MEPs who, like German liberal Alexander Graf Lambsdorff admitted at the ALDE hearing on self-censorship earlier this week, aren't professional enough to actually read a declaration they sign instead of just putting their signature when they are put under pressure by a PR campaign by one of their peers?

If you want to thank them, it's very easy to contact the MEPs: Just follow this link, copy the family name of the MEP into the search field and, on their profile, you'll then find their email.

And here is the list (copy-pasted from Europaportalen.se):

European Peoples' Party (EPP)

Janos Ader, Frankrike
Gabriele Albertini, Italien
Magdi Cristiano Allam, Italien
Laima Liucija Andrikiene, Litauen
Roberta Angelilli, Italien
Antonella Antinoro, Italien
Elena Oana Antonescu, Rumänien
Alfredo Antoniozzi, Italien
Pablo Arias Echeverría, Spanien
Sophie Auconie, Frankrike
Jean-Pierre Audy, Frankrike
Pilar Ayuso, Spanien
Georges Bach, Nederländerna
Raffaele Baldassarre, Italien
Burkhard Balz, Tyskland
Paolo Bartolozzi, Italien
Elena Băsescu, Rumänien
Regina Bastos, Portugal
Edit Bauer, Slovakien
Christophe Béchu, Frankrike
Sergio Berlato, Italien
Sebastian Valentin Bodu, Rumänien
Vito Bonsignore, Italien
Piotr Borys, Polen
Jan Březina, Tjeckien
Simon Busuttil, Malta
Alain Cadec, Frankrike
Wim van de Camp, Nederländerna
Antonio Cancian, Italien
Maria Da Graça Carvalho, Portugal
David Casa, Malta
Carlo Casini, Italien
Pilar del Castillo Vera, Spanien
Giovanni Collino, Italien
Lara Comi, Italien
Michel Dantin, Frankrike
Joseph Daul, Frankrike
Mário David, Portugal
Anne Delvaux, Belgien
Luigi Ciriaco De Mita, Italien
Albert Deß, Tyskland
Tamás Deutsch, Ungern
Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra, Spanien
Herbert Dorfmann, Italien
Frank Engel, Luxemburg
Sari Essayah, Finland
Rosa Estaràs Ferragut, Spanien
Diogo Feio, Portugal
José Manuel Fernandes, Portugal
Carlo Fidanza, Italien
Santiago Fisas Ayxela, Spanien
Karl-Heinz Florenz, Tyskland
Carmen Fraga Estévez, Spanien
Gaston Franco, Frankrike
Michael Gahler, Tyskland
Kinga Gál, Ungern
José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, Spanien
Elisabetta Gardini, Italien
Salvador Garriga Polledo, Spanien
Jean-Paul Gauzès, Frankrike
Marietta Giannakou, Grekland
Luis de Grandes Pascual, Spanien
Mathieu Grosch, Belgien
Françoise Grossetête, Frankrike
Pascale Gruny, Frankrike
Andrzej Grzyb, Polen
Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortines, Spanien
Enikő Győri, Ungern
András Gyürk, Ungern
Małgorzata Handzlik, Polen
Ágnes Hankiss, Ungern
Esther Herranz García, Spanien
Jolanta Emilia Hibner, Polen
Monika Hohlmeier, Tyskland
Danuta Maria Hübner, Polen
Salvatore Iacolino, Italien
Ville Itälä, Finland
Carlos José Iturgaiz Angulo, Spanien
Iliana Ivanova, Bulgarien
Peter Jahr, Tyskland
Lívia Járóka, Ungern
Sidonia Elżbieta Jędrzejewska, Polen
Elisabeth Jeggle, Tyskland
Filip Kaczmarek, Polen
Jarosław Kalinowski, Polen
Sandra Kalniete, Lettland
Othmar Karas, Österrike
Ioannis Kasoulides, Cypern
Martin Kastler, Tyskland
Tunne Kelam, Estland
Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Tyskland
Lena Kolarska-Bobińska, Polen
Eija-Riitta Korhola, Finland
Ádám Kósa, Ungern
Georgios Koumoutsakos, Grekland
Andrey Kovatchev, Bulgarien
Jan Kozłowski, Polen
Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Grekland
Werner Kuhn, Tyskland
Eduard Kukan, Slovakien
Alain Lamassoure, Frankrike
Vytautas Landsbergis, Litauen
Giovanni La Via, Italien
Constance Le Grip, Frankrike
Peter Liese, Tyskland
Krzysztof Lisek, Polen
Veronica Lope Fontagné, Spanien
Antonio López-Istúriz White, Spanien
Petru Constantin Luhan, Rumänien
Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska, Polen
Astrid Lulling, Luxemburg
Monica Luisa Macovei, Rumänien
Bogdan Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Polen
Marian-Jean Marinescu, Rumänien
Clemente Mastella, Italien
Barbara Matera, Italien
Gabriel Mato Adrover, Spanien
Iosif Matula, Rumänien
Mario Mauro, Italien
Hans-Peter Mayer, Tyskland
Jaime Mayor Oreja, Spanien
Erminia Mazzoni, Italien
Nuno Melo, Portugal
Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Spanien
Alajos Mészáros, Slovakien
Miroslav Mikolášik, Slovakien
Francisco José Millán Mon, Spanien
Gay Mitchell, Irland
Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, Frankrike
Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, Litauen
Tiziano Motti, Italien
Cristiana Muscardini, Italien
Mariya Nedelcheva, Bulgarien
Rareş-Lucian Niculescu, Rumänien
Angelika Niebler, Tyskland
Lambert van Nistelrooij, Nederländerna
Jan Olbrycht, Polen
Csaba Őry, Ungern
Alfredo Pallone, Italien
Georgios Papastamkos, Grekland
Maria do Céu Patrão Neves, Portugal
Aldo Patriciello, Italien
Alojz Peterle, Slovenien
Markus Pieper, Finland
Bernd Posselt, Tyskland
Hans-Gert Pöttering, Tyskland
Konstantinos Poupakis, Grekland
Jacek Protasiewicz, Polen
Hella Ranner, Österrike
Herbert Reul, Tyskland
Dominique Riquet, Frankrike
Crescenzio Rivellini, Italien
Zuzana Roithová, Tjeckien
Licia Ronzulli, Italien
Paul Rübig, Österrike
José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, Spanien
Potito Salatto, Italien
Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid, Frankrike
Amalia Sartori, Italien
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Polen
Algirdas Saudargas, Litauen
Marco Scurria, Italien
Czesław Adam Siekierski, Polen
Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris, Italien
Csaba Sógor, Rumänien
Renate Sommer, Tyskland
Bogusław Sonik, Polen
Catherine Soullie, Frankrike
Peter Šťastný, Slovakien
Theodor Dumitru Stolojan, Rumänien
Michèle Striffler, Frankrike
László Surján, Ungern
Alf Svensson, Sverige
József Szájer, Ungern
Salvatore Tatarella, Italien
Nuno Teixeira, Portugal
Eleni Theocharous, Cypern
Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, Polen
Marianne Thyssen, Belgien
László Tőkés, Rumänien
Rafał Trzaskowski, Polen
Traian Ungureanu, Rumänien
Vladimir Urutchev, Bulgarien
Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Spanien
Jarosław Leszek Wałęsa, Polen
Manfred Weber, Tyskland
Anja Weisgerber, Tyskland
Iuliu Winkler, Tyskland
Corien Wortmann-Kool, Nederländerna
Anna Záborská, Slovakien
Pablo Zalba Bidegain, Spanien
Paweł Zalewski, Polen
Iva Zanicchi, Italien
Artur Zasada, Polen
Milan Zver, Slovenien
Tadeusz Zwiefka, Polen

Socialists & Democrats (S&D) (60)
Magdalena Alvarez, Spanien
Luis Paulo Alves, Portugal
Francesca Balzani, Italien
Luigi Berlinguer, Italien
Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Litauen
Rita Borsellino, Italien
Victor Boştinaru, Rumänien
Salvatore Caronna, Italien
Alejandro Cercas, Spanien
Sergio Gaetano Cofferati, Italien
Silvia Costa, Italien
Rosario Crocetta, Italien
Francesco De Angelis, Italien
Paolo De Castro, Italien
Robert Dušek, Tjeckien
Edite Estrela, Portugal
Richard Falbr, Tjeckien
Elisa Ferreira, Portugal
Monika Flašíková Beňová, Slovakien
Iratxe García Pérez, Spanien
Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, Spanien
Louis Grech, Malta
Zita Gurmai, Ungern
Jiří Havel, Tjeckien
Edit Herczog, Ungern
Ramón Jáuregui Atondo, Spanien
Maria Eleni Koppa, Grekland
Stéphane Le Foll, Frankrike
Jo Leinen, Tyskland
Bogusław Liberadzki, Polen
Antonio Masip Hidalgo, Spanien
Guido Milana, Italien
Katarína Neveďalová, Slovakien
Justas Vincas Paleckis, Litauen
Pier Antonio Panzeri, Italien
Antigoni Papadopoulou, Cypern
Mario Pirillo, Italien
Gianni Pittella, Italien
Vittorio Prodi, Italien
Teresa Riera Madurell, Spanien
Edward Scicluna, Malta
Olga Sehnalová, Tjeckien
Joanna Senyszyn, Polen
Debora Serracchiani, Italien
Adrian Severin, Rumänien
Peter Simon, Tyskland
Brian Simpson, Storbritannien
Monika Smolková, Slovakien
Georgios Stavrakakis, Grekland
Gianluca Susta, Italien
Hannes Swoboda, Österrike
Csaba Sándor Tabajdi, Ungern
Zoran Thaler, Slovenien
Patrice Tirolien, Frankrike
Patrizia Toia, Italien
Kathleen Van Brempt, Belgien
Derek Vaughan, Storbritannien
Kristian Vigenin, Bulgarien
Henri Weber, Frankrike
Janusz Władysław Zemke, Polen

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) (32)
Liam Aylward, Irland
Catherine Bearder, Storbritannien
Cristian Silviu Buşoi, Rumänien
Chris Davies, Storbritannien
Luigi de Magistris, Italien
Marielle De Sarnez, Frankrike
Pat the Cope Gallagher, Irland
Nathalie Griesbeck, Frankrike
Marian Harkin, Irland
Filiz Hakaeva Hyusmenova, Bulgarien
Stanimir Ilchev, Bulgarien
Vincenzo Iovine, Italien
Metin Kazak, Bulgarien
Wolf Klinz, Tyskland
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Tyskland
Ramona Nicole Mănescu, Rumänien
Gesine Meissner, Tyskland
Louis Michel, Belgien
Norica Nicolai, Rumänien
Kristiina Ojuland, Estland
Siiri Oviir, Estland
Vladko Todorov Panayotov, Bulgarien
Antonyia Parvanova, Bulgarien
Frédérique Ries, Belgien
Niccolò Rinaldi, Italien
Hannu Takkula, Finland
Michael Theurer, Tyskland
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, Spanien
Giommaria Uggias, Italien
Viktor Uspaskich, Litauen
Adina-Ioana Vălean, Rumänien
Gianni Vattimo, Italien

Greens (5)
Francois Alfonsi, Frankrike
Malika Benarab-Attou, Frankrike
Michèle Rivasi, Frankrike
Werner Schulz, Tyskland
Michail Tremopoulos, Grekland

European Conservatives and Reformists (30)
Robert Atkins, Storbritannien
Adam Bielan, Polen
Lajos Bokros, Ungern
Tadeusz Cymański, Polen
Ryszard Czarnecki, Polen
Peter van Dalen, Nederländerna
Nirj Deva, Storbritannien
Derk Jan Eppink, Belgien
Hynek Fajmon, Tjeckien
Jacqueline Foster, Storbritannien
Marek Józef Gróbarczyk, Polen
Malcolm Harbour, Storbritannien
Michał Tomasz Kamiński, Polen
Sajjad Karim, Storbritannien
Jacek Olgierd Kurski, Polen
Emma McClarkin, Storbritannien
Marek Henryk Migalski, Polen
Miroslav Ouzký, Tjeckien
Mirosław Piotrowski, Polen
Tomasz Piotr Poręba, Polen
Struan Stevenson, Storbritannien
Ivo Strejček, Tjeckien
Konrad Szymański, Polen
Charles Tannock, Storbritannien
Valdemar Tomaševski, Litauen
Oldřich Vlasák, Tjeckien
Jacek Włosowicz, Polen
Janusz Wojciechowski, Polen
Roberts Zīle, Lettland
Zbigniew Ziobro, Polen

United European Left/Nordic Green Left (15)
Lothar Bisky, Tyskland
Cornelia Ernst, Tyskland
Takis Hadjigeorgiou, Cypern
Jacky Hénin, Frankrike
Jim Higgins, Irland
Elie Hoarau, Frankrike
Jürgen Klute, Tyskland
Jaromír Kohlíček, Tjeckien
Jiří Maštálka, Tjeckien
Marisa Matias, Portugal
Willy Meyer, Spanien
Miloslav Ransdorf, Tjeckien
Vladimír Remek, Tjeckien
Helmut Scholz, Tyskland
Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Cypern

Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) (14)
Bastiaan Belder, Nederländerna
Mara Bizzotto, Italien
Mario Borghezio, Italien
John Bufton, Storbritannien
Lorenzo Fontana, Italien
Claudio Morganti, Italien
Jaroslav Paška, Slovakien
Fiorello Provera, Italien
Oreste Rossi Italien
Nikolaos Salavrakos, Grekland
Giancarlo Scottà, Italien
Timo Soini, Finland
Francesco Enrico Speroni, Italien
Niki Tzavela, Grekland

Independents (19)
George Becali, Rumänien
Slavi Binev, Bulgarien
Andrew Henry William Brons, Storbritannien
Philip Claeys, Belgien
Diane Dodds, Storbritannien
Bruno Gollnisch, Frankrike
Nick Griffin, Storbritannien
Jean-Marie Le Pen, Frankrike
Marine Le Pen, Frankrike
Krisztina Morvai, Ungern
Mike Nattrass, Storbritannien
Franz Obermayr, Österrike
Nicole Sinclaire, Storbritannien
Francisco Sosa Wagner, Spanien
Emil Stoyanov, Bulgarien
Csanád Szegedi, Ungern
Claudiu Ciprian Tănăsescu, Rumänien
Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Rumänien
Frank Vanhecke, Belgien

And if you don't want to write to them now, remind them every time when you contact them in the future: Thanks for calling me a potential pedophile!

Facebook or the question in what kind of world some MEPs live

A member of the European Parliament, Ms Nessa Childers, seems to think Facebook is a danger to the mental health of EU citizens, asking the Commission whether it will legislate on this threat to humanity.

With all due respect to you, Ms Childers, but there are questions that are so stupid that I ask myself why you waste your time and the time of the European Commission with that?

Proclaiming that Facebook is a danger to mental health because it makes you happy is like saying that meeting friends and family is dangerous because it makes you happy.

Digital communication is part of the real life of people in the 21st century and the question put forward by you shows how you have not understood these changes and the reality we citizens are actually living in.

Well done...!

(via @PlaceLux on Twitter)

EU Intergovernmental Conference on Wednesday

Usually, Intergovernmental Conferences to change the EU Treaties receive quite some attention of the continent.

This time, it is different:

Almost unnoticed, the Spanish EU-Council Presidency has invited to an Intergovernmental Conference on the level of Permanent Representatives (that is, the ambassadors of the EU member states) for next Wednesday, 23 June 2010, to agree on the changing of the EU Treaties to allow 18 new members of the European Parliament to officially take part in the EP's work.

The exact distribution of these 18 can be found in the respective additional protocol laid out in European Council document EUCO 11/10 (page 11).

Since this will be a Treaty change, all EU member countries will need to ratify it according to their national procedures.

Draft EU-US SWIFT agreement published

Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht has published the draft EU-US SWIFT agreement formally sent to EU parliamentarians today.

According to Albrecht, the agreement still contains many issues already criticised in the last version rejected by MEPs earlier this year, e.g. the transmission of data packages containing data of innocent EU citizens.

This sounds like the Commission didn't really listen to the European Parliament - Malmström seems to love the conflict.

22 EU parliamentarians withdraw signatures from controversial declaration - update

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Update (17 June): It seems like the declaration has been adopted. Here it is, on the list of adopted declarations. What a disgrace!

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According to Europaportalen.se, MEPs have started to withdraw their signatures from a controversial EP declaration.

The declaration that would become an official European Parliament position if at least 369 signatures from MEPs were collected demands that search engine searches should be part of the data retention directive, all this under the pretext of the fight against pedophilia.

This declaration, if I understand correctly, would effectively mean (if translated into EU law) that every search that we do on the net would have to be stored for two years and made accessible to the security authorities if requested.

After Europaportalen.se Journalist Christian Wohlert reported about the issue last week, it became news in the UK and in Sweden and it also has been noted with concern in Germany and in France.

At least, the news coverage was successful: According to Wohlert, 22 MEPs have withdrawn their signatures so far.

Yet, there are still 309 MEPs left who think that every EU citizen is a potential pedophile and that each of our searches needed to be stored and made available if the police and other security forced wanted to know more about us - the EP at its best!

Picture: © stephenjohnbryde / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Useless propaganda on EuroparlTV

I am not totally against institutional media if they fill a gap that the old and new media cannot cover right now.

But videos like the one below are exactly the kind of institution propaganda that I don't want to see.

It's coverage without journalistic distance, critical reflection or political opinions. There is no real (temporal) context, the pictures are stereotype and the commentary is totally descriptive.

An MEP who writes a blog or tweets 3-4 messages a day can produce the same information density for much less money and with much more authenticity.



The institutions shouldn't waste money on such kind of pseudo-journalism - if the MEPs want to promote themselves they shall do so with their own funds!

The disrespectful MEPs

Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States was expected to speak at 12:00 in the plenary of the European Parliament in Brussels*.

Since Biden was late, the regular session continued for another 20 minutes, but many MEPs were already coming into the room.

But instead of paying respect to their colleagues speaking, most of them were chatting, telephoning etc. and making such a noise that it was hard to understand the speakers, even on the web live stream. Even two interventions - rather hesitant but still - of the EP session president didn't make them keep quiet.

This is an absolutely shameful behaviour, and although this will not be in the mainstream news today, European parliamentarians have lost a lot of respect in my eyes today.

This was not my parliament, this was a bunch of kiddies without education, and non of those chatting in the plenary today should ever demand that silence was to be made when he or she is speaking!!

PS: Usually the EP plenary is empty and one person is speaking, this time it was full and everybody was speaking. Both are communication disasters.

* Update: See my summary.

Who will be in the External Action Service?

Thanks to MEP Martin Ehrenhauser (independent), we now have access to a list of Commission & Council units that will be placed under the External Action Service of the EU as soon as it is functional.

Note: In the online registry of the Council, this document is not public. Why?

The debate around the External Action Service (EAS)

In the video below you see MEP Elmar Brok (EPP), European Parliament rapporteur on the EAS, talking about the present problems in the establishement of the EU External Action Service.



More on the debate in Euroblogs: Matizandrea (Italian), L'Europe de la Défense (French) & EU at 50 (English).

PS.: Also take note of the summary of discussions presented by the Council Presidency in March (made public in April).

Violence against women doesn't exempt MEPs

See also yesterday's European Parliament Facebook chat on gender equality with Eva-Britt Svensson.

(via the European Parliament web editors on their blog and on Twitter)

The EU in German blogs (8): The priorities of the Greens in the European Parliament

New MEP Ska Keller reports about the discussions around the priorities of the Greens in the European Parliament as well as about her own priority (own translation; links added):

"Last week there was a meeting of the group in which the priorities for the group for the next year were discussed. It's just the first reading, and I ask myself how the board will bring together all the different (good) proposals. There are just too many huge problems that are all important, but there is no sense in putting up 20 priorities at once.

Jan and I are already planning to work mainly on the Stockholm Programme during this year. [...]"

Random MEPs: N° 661 - Claude Turmes

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Under the category "Random MEPs" I will from time to time draw a random number from 1 to 736 and take a short a look at the MEP with this number according to an alphabetic list of all MEPs.

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The first one on my list is the MEP N° 661*: Claude Turmes.

He is male. 48 years old. From Luxembourg. He is a Green.

This is his personal website. This is his voice (mp3, French). And that's him in an interview in April:



It is the third term in the European Parliament for this former sports teacher, and he is now one of the vice-chairpersons of the Greens in the EP, as well as a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

According to his declaration on financial liabilities, he is the vice-president of EUFORES (a network of MEPs for renewable energies), he has 10 shares of the Luxembourg electricity company Cegedel as well as 7,000 Euros invested in a Luxembourg energy park. He also participates in some alternative media projects in his home country.

Google finds 107,000 results for the search term "Claude Turmes" (with quotation marks), and the first 100 results are absolutely dominated by the terms "Greens", "energy" and "climate".

According to his Votewatch profile for the 2004-2009 term [If this link doesn't work, click on the 2004-09 term on the upper left of Votewatch, and re-use the link again.], he has drafted 4 reports and held 77 speeches in the plenary, which puts him into the upper third of MEPs in both categories, while his attendance rate with almost 91% puts him on the upper ranks of the second third of MEPs. He is also among the most loyal MEPs when it comes to voting with his political group, or, in other words, he shares most of the majority opinions within the Greens in the EP.

For a full list of activities in the European Parliament, see his parliamentary biography. But it is noteworthy that his last work as a rapporteur was on the

Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources

which ended in a directive passed in June of this year, just before the end of the legislative term of the old parliament.

He thus looks like a rather influential MEP in the field of climate change and renewable energies, and could be a good subject for all those blogging in the second round of Th!nk About It!...

* Since I could not find a full list of MEPs in one document, I counted through the alphabetic list on the EP's website after I draw the number 661. Although my counting could be wrong, it's still random.

The question of the Quaestors in the European Parliament

For the list of new Quaestors, see the end of the post!

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Until I started this blog, I haven't been an expert on small details of EU politics, and I am still learning. For example, until quite recently, I had never heard about the term "Quaestor".

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So let's use the occasion of yesterday's election of the five Quaestors (in the last term there were six of them) to take a short look at this function whose role is defined by article 26 of the European Parliament Rules of Procedure.

This rule states that they:

"shall be responsible for administrative and financial matters directly concerning Members, pursuant to guidelines laid down by the Bureau."

Let me first point to Grahnlaw who in February wrote an article about their legal background and some questions in this context. There is also a European Parliament sub-page on the College of Quaestors with some more details.

But most interesting is this interview (French video, ca. 5:30 min) with the ex-Quaestor Jacques F. Poos in which he says (quote from the translated transcription; my highlights):

"[T]he Quaestors are responsible for administrative matters that concern the MPs: everything regarding the financial modus operandi, allowances, travel expenses, as well as things to do with the activities of the European Parliament concerning visitors, publicity and the internal organisation, the allocation of offices among the groups, the organisation of exhibitions, events and so forth, which take place within the European Parliament.

It is work that is not considered as a political activity, but it is clearly necessary since Quaestors have to take decisions on individual cases regarding disputes between MPs and the administration. This happens from time to time.

For example, they are currently playing a role preparing for the establishment of the new enlarged Parliament. Preparatory work is obviously needed in order that when our new colleagues arrive in early July, things are in order, they have their offices and everything is in place.

But perhaps the most interesting prerogative of the Quaestors is that they are members of the Bureau of the European Parliament and thus participate in the meetings of the Bureau, where all the policy regarding staff and buildings and so on is discussed."

Taking into account that according to Grahnlaw they also issue the lobbyists' entry passes to the European Parliament, the Quaestors seem to have quite an interesting regulatory function that should get more attention by the outside world...

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Names and voting results of yesterday's elections

First round (absolute majority needed):

• Lidia Joanna GERINGER de OEDENBERG (Socialists & Democrats, Poland) 398 votes


• Jim HIGGINS (EPP, Ireland) 352 votes

Second round (absolute majority needed): None.

Third round (simple majority needed):

• Astrid LULLING (EPP, Luxembourg) 306 votes
• Jiří MAŠTÁLKA (GUE/NGL, Czech Republic) 293 votes
• Bill NEWTON DUNN (ALDE, United Kingdom) 208 votes

For the names of those not elected you can consult the EP press release.

The first deaf MEP - Dr. Ádám Kósa - addressed the European Parliament today

Dear readers,

I am honestly moved seeing the first deaf Member of the European Parliament, Dr. Ádám Kósa speaking in the plenary today.

I cannot even recall having seen this in a national context - and even if so, it is amazing to see that this is possible in the European Parliament with its already 23 official languages:

Dr. Ádám Kósa - European Union Parliament from Alison B on Vimeo.

I congratulate Dr. Kósa, and hope he gets the support he needs to be a good MEP!

(via: Grumpy Old Deafies)

Will MEPs become more interactive? (in reaction to a EurActiv article)

Just a few day ago, I wrote an open letter to MEPs asking them to be more interactive, while short before I discussed communication strategies of PR companies (which caused some controversy).

Now, EurActiv published an article titled "New MEPs seen embracing social media in 'conversation age'" which starts like this:

"The dawn of the "Conversation Age" will see more interaction between MEPs and stakeholders in the new legislature, public affairs bosses told EurActiv, predicting that blogs and social media such as Facebook will become more influential in European politics."

In fact, I would be more than glad if this new age would actually come!

However, it is a pity that only PR companies have been interviewed for this article and no MEPs. I would like to hear from MEPs - especially the new ones - how they think they can and will change their communication in the course of the next five years.

I want to feel this new age, I want to see it live on stage, and I am looking forward to any positive change in this regard...

EuroparlTV: Interview with Luigi de Magistris, Italian ex-judge and new MEP

Italian politics is usually overshadowed by Berlusconi, so I would like to draw the attention to Luigi de Magistris, ex-prosecutor and new MEP now sitting alongside ALDE:

The EU in German blogs (3): Debut in Brussels

Franziska "Ska" Keller is a young newly elected Green MEP from Germany (I already covered her some time ago).

In her blog she reports about her first days in Brussels (own translation):

"Becoming an MEP is like marrying: you don't feel much different afterwards than you felt before. Despite the fact that from now on one has to care for committees and offices, taxes and insurances.

Last week we had the first group meeting in Brussels. Before we had to go through a show-jumping course of information desks, badge presentations, photo shootings etc. Next week we will get our committees and delegations (after day-long negotiations about who gets what), we will be able to hire our assistants (no more applications, please, I am already taken!), set up our offices and sit in trains for many many hours.

On July, 14th the Parliament will constitute itself officially in Strasbourg. Whether we will have to vote for - or against - Barroso at the same time is not sure yet.

By the way, the youngest Green MEP's name is Emilie, she is 25 and comes from Denmark. The next one is Jan [Philipp Albrecht; JF], 26, from Lower Saxony [Germany; JF]. Only then come Karima from France and me, both 27."

I am really looking forward for her continuing reports about her "debut" in Brussels...!

All new MEPs... - updated -

... can be found here (PDF). (Link updated on 26 June 2009)

(Credit to Burson-Marsteller Brussels)

EuroparlTV: Isabelle Durant very first new MEP

The Belgian Green Isabelle Durant was the very first new MEP to register at the European Parliament, and EuroparlTV got her on camera:

European Parliament election 2009 (118): Continued ignorance

It is the third day of the European Parliament elections 2009. The mainstream media still don't care. Major websites have the topic hidden somewhere between sports and society.

The ignorance continues.

I doubt that many voters will have got an idea of the political positions of the parties running for these elections from newspapers, news programmes, or major news sites. Instead of presenting political positions and ideological debates, we have to content ourselves with proxy discussions on national topics for which the EP elections are just a welcome occasion.

Day three of the European Parliament elections 2009, and among the most important issues is Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi (even if one may construct a connection to the EP elections) having nude young ladies around him. If this is the biggest problem we have in Europe, then maybe everything is fine.

In 36 hours we will start getting results for the next European Parliament. People will notice, but they won't care.

MEPs will go back to their little offices, their travelling circus, their lobby talks, their Brussels life. And they won't care either, as long as they are elected.

They won't care, and they will blame the media. They will stop blogging, tweeting, facebooking, because their campaigns are over. They will ignore voters' interests and media's needs, they will write their reports, ask their questions, and travel between Brussels and Strasbourg.

"Ignorance" is the word that applies to all three major sides in these European Parliament elections:

The media ignore MEPs and the necessity to inform citizens. MEPs ignore "their" citizens by using inadequate means of communication and lack a strategic approach to European and national media. Citizens ignore their MEPs because they do not appear in the main news and they ignore fringe media covering EU issues because electing a new superstar is much more fun.

So everybody ignores everybody, and nobody notices.

We live in the Union of European Ignorance:

• European politics are based on the ignorance of many for many, which leaves room for the few to work and decide in the name of many without being held accountable.

• The European polity is constructed so that it fosters ignorance, by making structures and process so complicated and intransparent that not even scientists know why something happens in the European, and neither do the media or the citizens.
  

The magma seethes below the surface, but the volcano doesn't errupt - so we will ignore it until the day when it explodes in a major catastrophe. Then they will look back to day 3 of the European Parliament elections 2009 and say:

"But, back then, we didn't know!"

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Since July 2008, I have been following up national and European activities on the path to the EP elections under the category "European parliament elections 2009".

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