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Dear members and leaders of youth organizations across Europe,
We are writing on behalf of Inter Alia, an Athens based NGO with main objectives to promote communication between European people, to enhance civil society and collective action at the European level and to strengthen Europeans’ common sense of belonging.
Having found your contact through SALTO’s partner finding tool OTLAS, we are contacting you with the quest for partnering and assisting us in our project “ Election is coming: to Vote or Not to Vote?”
In our attempt to collect as much opinions as possible from all EU Member States, we would like to involve you in our project on two levels:
a) Send us your own opinion on the voting question.
b) Distribute the call among your members, asking for active participation in view of the European Year of Citizens 2013, and the forthcoming EP elections in 2014.
Find the full call for participation on our website:
http://www.interaliaproject.com/news.php?id=19 .
If you are interested in becoming a partner in the project, please contact us at:
bon...@interaliaproject.com.
All comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanking you in advance for your contribution to the success of our initiative.
Sincerely,
Boyka Boneva
Networking Manager
Inter Alia
Athens
Few words about the project:
The first election for European Parliament representatives since the EU entered the current multilevel crisis and the Lisbon Treaty was ratified is upon us. It constitutes one of the few occasions where the importance of the outcome is so clearly overshadowed by the importance of participation rate.
In addition, for practical reasons, the June 2014 EP elections are the most important in EU’s history. The European Parliament after Lisbon Treaty has been given more powers and competences and has, therefore, become increasingly visible, assertive, and definitive for EU policy making. Moreover, the 2014 EP elections are taking place in an awkward political framework. The economic crisis and the lack of convincing European answers to it, have led to the rise of anti-EU forces along with frustration and loss of confidence of pro-EU forces. If this trend continues until the EP elections in May 2014, it could lead to an absurd Parliamentary balance where the less pro-European or anti-EU forces will control the only representative supranational EU instrument.
Both voting and not voting could make good sense and, in the present context, can be persuasively defended. However, this collection does not aim at bringing together a series of rationalizations. It is about ACTION. What are you going to do – vote or not vote? And for what reasons? Democratic values, ideology, partisanship, habit, apathy, frustration, distrust?
This is an open call towards all EU citizens with no restriction whatsoever to age, education level or occupation.
Please send your answers (up to 250 words) by 30 June 2013 , which should include a brief analysis of your main argument(s) for or against voting for the European Parliament elections between 22 – 25 May 2014. It is required from all participants to enclose some personal details: Name, title, status, affiliation (if applicable) corresponding address, telephone number, and e-mail.
Writers’ consent on the final text will be asked before publishing.
All answers should be submitted to Inter Alia by e-mail to:
Nikos Papakostas
Inter Alia
epele...@interaliaproject.com
TEL: 0030-6980 742 148
Important dates
30 June 2013: Submissions deadline
September 2013: Results presentation
22-25 May 2014: EP Elections |
