Countdown to the 2014 European Parliament Elections
Uma iniciativa de Friends of Europe e Europe's World
With unemployment at record levels, rising extremism and popular discontent, Europe needs to hear its citizens’ voices! Debating Europe Vote 2014 is the first ever pan-European online e-Vote, launched one year before the European Parliament elections in May 2014. This will be the largest ever pan-European exercise in e-Democracy, giving you a chance to decide who YOU want to vote for in the 2014 European Parliament elections.
Debating Europe will host a series of online debates, live chats, and physical events, designed to enable Europe’s citizens to question MEPs (and prospective MEPs) on the issues facing Europe, and help make up their mind about who to vote for in the European elections. Citizens will be invited to cast their vote for the European political group they support and a live chart of the European Parliament hemicycle will show the results in real-time.
The results will be presented directly to the European Parliament each month. Citizens, students and first-time voters from each of the (soon-to-be) 28 EU member-states will take part, and the online vote will be closed one month before the 2014 European Parliament elections so the final results can be sent out to European and national media, acting as a high-profile barometer ahead of the real elections.
Debating Europe is a successful online project launched in 2011 by the think tank Friends of Europe and the policy journal Europe’s World in partnership with the European Parliament, Microsoft, Gallup and Skype. It is designed to engage citizens and policymakers in an ongoing conversation on a range of vital issues shaping Europe’s future, collecting questions from citizens through a series of online debates and asking high-profile policymakers and experts to reply. Since its launch, the project has grown quickly - with an active social media community of over 105,000+ followers today. We’ve taken hundreds of comments and questions from our users and put them to key policymakers, including Prime Ministers, Commissioners, Ministers, MEPs and MPs (among others: Herman Van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso, Martin Schulz, Jean-Claude Juncker, Jean-Claude Trichet, Mario Monti, Joaquin Almunia, Viviane Reding, Javier Solana, Carl Bildt, Alexander Stubb).
