Campaign bus hits road in bid to boost elections

By Martin Banks

Date: 29/04/04

A CAMPAIGN bus will hit the roads of Europe next week in a bid to help boost public awareness of the forthcoming European Parliament elections, scheduled for 10-13 June.

A 100-strong Parliament election "task force" will travel to each of the EU's new member states to explain what the assembly does, trying to generate interest in the poll.

Voter turnout in the last European elections, in 1999, fell to under 50% for the first time since the first direct elections in 1979 and there are fears that participation will fall even further when the polls open this summer.

In a bid to reverse the trend, ten separate groups, each comprising ten Parliamentary staff, will spend ten days from tomorrow (30 April) touring the new member states in campaign buses at an estimated cost of l160,000.

Each task-force member, all of whom were chosen after being asked to give five reasons why people should take part in the poll, will distribute leaflets, meet civil society organizations and give talks in schools.

Juna Lahousse, the communications director in the Parliament, said: "This will be a historic election and we wanted to get out and explain to ordinary people the work of the Parliament and the importance of voting. It will be an opportunity to make the Parliament more visible and there are no political groups involved."

Hans-Gert Pöttering, a German MEP and the leader of Parliament's biggest political group, the European People's Party, said that "anything that helps generate interest in the elections has got to be welcomed".

The European Parliament is organising campaign buses to tour the new EU Member States to raise interest and awareness of the elections to the European Parliament in June 2004.