The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union I am the founder of the Rock the Union tour. The goal of my tour was to communicate the European Parliament elections. The election you are called to participate in this May. Depending from which country you are coming from, you will be called to vote between May 22nd and May 25th. But as I learned during my tour most people have no idea who they can vote for, who the candidates and the parties are and what they write in their manifestos. The effort of most of the parties is until today still quite low if at all existing, leaving a lot of people who are getting their information from national media broadcasters looking for information if they are at all aware of the election. As I work in the business of informing and communicating with Citizen-E I decided to write this compendium where you can find all information you need to be informed about this year’s European Parliament election. In the next lines you will find structured information about:

Inhalt The EP ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 The candidates ........................................................................................................................................ 3 The political parties ................................................................................................................................. 4 Defunct Europarties[edit] ............................................................................................................. 5 Proposed Europarties[edit] .......................................................................................................... 5 Europarty structure[edit] .................................................................................................................. 6 European political parties not recognised by the EU[edit].......................................................... 6 Confederations of national parties that are not Europarties[edit] .............................................. 6 The manifestos ........................................................................................................................................ 7 The lead candidates for the European Commission Presidency ............................................................. 8 Preference finders ................................................................................................................................... 9 Debates and Discussions ....................................................................................................................... 10 Predictions ............................................................................................................................................. 10 Rules ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 Dates:..................................................................................................................................................... 11

Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union

The EP The European Parliament is the biggest Parliament in the European Union and the second biggest in the world. Its main tasks are: Directly elected by EU voters every 5 years, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent the people. Parliament is one of the EU’s main law-making institutions, along with the Council of the European Union ('the Council'). The European Parliament has three main roles:   

debating and passing European laws, with the Council scrutinising other EU institutions, particularly the Commission, to make sure they are working democratically debating and adopting the EU's budget, with the Council.

Parliament’s calendar Passing European laws In many areas, such as consumer protection and the environment, Parliament works together with the Council (representing national governments) to decide on the content of EU laws and officially adopt them. This process is called "Ordinary legislative procedure" (ex "co-decision"). Under the Lisbon Treaty, the range of policies covered by the new ordinary legislative procedure has increased, giving Parliament more power to influence the content of laws in areas including agriculture, energy policy, immigration and EU funds. Parliament must also give its permission for other important decisions, such as allowing new countries to join the EU. Democratic supervision Parliament exercises influence over other European institutions in several ways. When a new Commission is appointed, its 28 members – one from each EU country – cannot take up office until Parliament has approved them. If the Members of the European Parliament disapprove of a nominee, they can reject the entire slate. Parliament can also call on the Commission to resign during its period in office. This is called a 'motion of censure'. Parliament keeps check on the Commission by examining reports it produces and by questioning Commissioners. Its committees play an important part here. MEPs look at petitions from citizens and sets up committees of inquiry. When national leaders meet for European Council summits, Parliament gives its opinion on the topics on the agenda. Supervising the budget Parliament adopts the EU’s annual budget with the Council of the European Union. Parliament has a committee that monitors how the budget is spent, and every year passes judgement on the Commission's handling of the previous year's budget. Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union Composition The number of MEPs for each country is roughly in proportion to its population. Under the Lisbon Treaty no country can have fewer than 6 or more than 96 MEPs. The current numbers in the Parliament were set, however, before the coming into force of the treaty. The numbers will be adjusted for the next mandate of the European Parliament. For example, the number of MEPs for Germany will thus be reduced from 99 to 96, whilst for Malta this number will increase from 5 to 6. MEPs are grouped by political affiliation, not by nationality.

Source: http://www.elections2014.eu/en/presskit/content/20131112PKH24411/html/Overview-of-Parliament-and-the-2014-elections Find your MEP Location The European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels (Belgium), Luxembourg and Strasbourg (France). Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the ‘General Secretariat’). Meetings of the whole Parliament (‘plenary sessions’) take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are also held in Brussels. Source: http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/europeanparliament/index_en.htm

The candidates It is more than difficult to find out who is actually running for Parliament this year. However the consulting group Burson-Marsteller runs the prject Europe Decides Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union where you can find all available information about the people who run for the European Parliament in all 28 European Member States. To see who is running please follow the link: http://europedecides.eu/countryby-country/.

The political parties As we are talking politics here most of the people running for Parliament are members of the political Parties which form on the European level European Political parties.

Current Europarties[edit] As of March 2012, there are 13 recognised Europarties:[14] Europarty

Ideology

2013 First grant Recognised

European People's Party[14]

Christian democracy, Conservatism

€7.3m 2004

Party of European Socialists[14]

Social democracy

€5.0m 2004

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party[14][15]

Liberalism

€2.2m 2004

European Green Party[14]

Green politics

€1.6m 2004

Alliance of European Conservatism, Economic Conservatives and liberalism, Euroscepticism Reformists[14]

€1.4m 2010

Party of the European Socialism, Communism Left[14]

€0.9m 2004

Movement for a Europe of Liberties

Euroscepticism, National conservatism €0.8m 2012

Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union and Democracy[14] European Democratic Centrism Party[14]

€0.6m 2004

European Free Alliance[14]

€0.4m 2004

Regionalism, Independentism

European Alliance for Euroscepticism, Nationalism, RightFreedom[14] wing populism

€0.4m 2011

Alliance of European Ultranationalism, Euroscepticism, FarNational right politics[16] [14] Movements

€0.4m 2012

European Christian Christian right, Social conservatism Political Movement[14]

€0.3m 2010

EUDemocrats[14]

€0.3m 2006

Euroscepticism, Eurorealism

Defunct Europarties[edit]  The Alliance of Independent Democrats in Europe, a loose association of Eurosceptics and nationalists, met the recognition threshold from 2006 to 2008.[12][13][17]  The heterogeneous Alliance for Europe of the Nations, which included moderate nationalists, national conservatives and Eurosceptics, met the recognition threshold from 2004 to 2009.[12][13][17] Proposed Europarties[edit] In January 2008, leaders of far-right parties from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and France announced plans to launch a far-right Europarty by 15 November, provisionally called the European Patriotic Party,Patriotic European Party or European Freedom Party.[18][19] According to media reports, the European Alliance for Freedom was founded in 2010 or 2011 and is officially recognised.[20] It was reported on 1 November 2008 that Declan Ganley had registered a company in Dublin called the Libertas Party Ltd[21] and that it was intended to "carry on the business of a European political party".[21] Libertas applied for Europarty recognition which was briefly granted but then suspended following the disavowal of two of its candidates. In April 2012 a conference of Pirate Parties International agreed to establish a European political party,[22] which became the European Pirate Party (PPEU). In September 2013, libertarian parties from Germany (Party of Reason), Spain (Partido de la Libertad Individual), France (Parti Libéral Démocrate) and the Netherlands (Libertarische Partij) signed The Utrecht Declaration and Covenant of Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union European Classical Liberal and Libertarian Parties, establishing the European Party for Individual Liberty (EPIL).[23][24] Europarty structure[edit] All current Europarties are mostly made up of national parties, Individual members MP or MEPS: MP's who are members of member parties can become members of the Europarty. Additionally, people can become individual members of the Europarty without having to join a national party first (e.g. Marian Harkin, who is an individual member of the European Democratic Party). European political parties not recognised by the EU[edit]  Europe Begins at Sarajevo (defunct): Pro-Bosnian political party.  European Federalist Party: the pan-European party advocating for the creation of a true Europe-wide democracy in Europe based on an increased citizens' participation in European politics and on the principles of european federalism. It is present in 18 Countries.  European National Front: Network of ultra-nationalist and far-right parties in Europe.  European Pirate Party: An association of Pirate Parties from across Europe.  Newropeans: Political movement of citizens with democratisation of the EU as the main focus.  European Party for Individual Liberty: Libertarian political party. Confederations of national parties that are not Europarties[edit]  Nordic Green Left Alliance: Scandinavian socialists and greens.  Euronat (defunct): Right-wing nationalist parties, including the British National Party of the United Kingdom and the Front National of France.  European Anticapitalist Left: Network of anticapitalist, mostly broad leftwing parties in Europe.  Movement for European Reform (defunct): Conservative and Atlanticist eurosceptics; springboard for the formation of European Conservatives and Reformists  Platform for Transparency (defunct): Loose confederation of three independent MEPs; somewhat eurosceptic.  European Democratic Union: Christian democratic and conservative parties.  Liberal South East European Network: Balkan liberal parties Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_political_party

The Members of the European Parliament sit in political groups – they are not organised by nationality, but by political affiliation. There are currently 7 political groups in the European Parliament

Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union Each takes care of its own internal organisation by appointing a chair (or two cochairs in the case of some groups), a bureau and a secretariat. The places assigned to Members in the Chamber are decided by political affiliation, from left to right, by agreement with the group chairmen. 25 Members are needed to form a political group, and at least one-quarter of the Member States must be represented within the group. Members may not belong to more than one political group. Some Members do not belong to any political group and are known as non-attached Members. Before every vote in plenary the political groups scrutinise the reports drawn up by the parliamentary committees and table amendments to them. The position adopted by the political group is arrived at by discussion within the group. No Member can be forced to vote in a particular way. Further information:        

Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance European Conservatives and Reformists Group Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group Annual Accounts Source: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/007f2537e0/Politicalgroups.html

The manifestos In case you want to know what the political Parties actually want, you can find all their manifestos here: http://europeangreens.eu/sites/europeangreens.eu/files/2014%20Manifesto.pdf http://www.aecr.eu/aecr-adopts-reykjavik-declaration/ http://www.meldeuropa.com/?page_id=4 http://www.pde-edp.eu/en/edp/manifesto http://www.eurallfree.org/sites/default/files/Manifesto%20EAF%20.pdf http://aemn.eu/political-declaration/ http://www.eudemocrats.org/eud/uploads/Political%20platform%20of%20the%20EU %20Democrats.pdf Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union http://www.aldeparty.eu/sites/eldr/files/news/10204/2014_alde_party_manifesto.pdf http://www.epp.eu/sites/default/files/content/documents/Action%20programme%20wit h%20cover%20EN.pdf http://www.epin.org/new/files/pes_manifesto__adopted_by_the_pes_election_congress_en.pdf

The lead candidates for the European Commission Presidency As it is the first time that the European Union citizens have the chance to decide indirectly about the position of the new European Commission President some of the European Political Parties have proposed candidates: Click on picture to get to video on Youtube.

Jean-Claude Juncker (EPP)

Alexis Tsipras (European Left)

José Bové, Franziska Maria — 'Ska' Keller (European Greens)

Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE)

Martin Schulz (PES)

Except for Tsiparis and Bové all candidates took part in the first President Debate April 28th 2014

Preference finders Since all of the above information take a lot of time to read and to think through some organisations have created preference finders which are designed to help you find the political party which is closest to you in your political mind set. Still these tools are just a help, you should always take a closer look. For young people: http://www.MyVote2014.eu

For older: http://www.electio2014.eu/de/make_your_choice http://euandi.eu/ http://www.bpb.de/politik/wahlen/wahl-o-mat/181839/europawahl-2014 Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union

Debates and Discussions To discuss your ideas and the different political positions for the elction you can do this here: http://www.ivotefor.eu/ http://www.debatingeurope.eu/vote2014/

On Twitter and Facebook with these hashtags: #EP14

#EP14

#EP2014

#EP2014

#EU2014

#EU2014

#EUdebate2014

#EUdebate2014

And you will get up-to-date information about the European Parliament election 2014 from these Twitter accounts: @electio2014 @EuropeDecides @EPElections @2014Europarl @euparlelect14

Predictions It is always interesting who will win elections. Therefore tools have been developed giving regular updates and predicts from current polls about the turnout of the election and about which political party would currently gain how many seats in the different countries. http://www.elections2014.eu/en/news-room/content/20140324STO39616/html/2014European-elections-latest-projections-of-seats-in-the-Parliament http://www.electio2014.eu/pollsandscenarios/polls Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union

Rules In regards to who actually can vote there are some things you need to know:

Source: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/EPRS/InfoGraphic-2014-European-electionsnational-rules-FINAL.pdf Can you vote when you do not live in your country of origin?

Dates: Tuesday 06 May 09:30 / 12:30 - 06-05-2014, Other events :Press seminar - European Elections 2014 This time is different 14:30 / 17:45 - 06-05-2014, Other events :Press seminar - European Elections 2014 This time is different Friday 09 May 10:00 / 12:30 - 09-05-2014, Other events :Euroscola 16:00 / 18:30 - 09-05-2014, Other events :Euroscola Saturday 17 May Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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The European Parliament election 2014 The Citizen-E Compendium to Rock the Union 10:30 / 12:30 - 17-05-2014, Other events :Debate "European elections - Act. React. Impact." Source: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/schedule 8 May: Debate between PES and EPP, organised in Berlin by ORF and ZDF. 15 May: Date for a presidential debate in the EP in Brussels, organised by the EBU. 20 May: Debate between PES and EPP, organised by ARD. 22-25 May: Elections for European Parliament Source: http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/tv-debate-show-junckerschulz-duel-300807

Source: http://w ww.linklaters.com/pdfs/mkt/brussels/EU_transition_elections_2014.pdf

So here you have all the information you need to be informed about the European Parliament election May 22nd-25th 2014.

Keep the spirit & Rock the Union! Yours,

Hans

Hans Mund I www.citizen-e.eu I www.rocktheunion.eu I [email protected] I +4917621717501 The use of this compendium is free, all data is taken from the cited sources. The authors does not take over responsibility for them.

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