Greeks reach out through e-Vote project

Date: 06/03/03

By Karen Carstens

THE EU's Greek presidency has come up with an easily accessible way for the public to beat the democratic deficit blues, by launching an online voting project on its website which poses a host of questions on topics ranging from Iraq to enlargement and immigration.

In an effort to bring the "ordinary citizen" closer to the policymakers, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou plans to regularly present the results of the polls at ministerial meetings and summits.

"We intend to use the Greek presidency to continue our long history of democracy by promoting e-democracy in the EU," declared Papandreou.

"For this experiment to be a success, we need the widest possible public participation."

Greece, which took over the Union's six-month rotating presidency from Denmark on 1 January, is the first country at the EU helm to launch such an initiative.

And the site (http://evote.eu2003gr) has already logged more than 33,000 respondents since the e-Vote project went online on 10 February.

Currently, visitors can vote on three broad topics - the EU today, the Union's role in the world and the future of the EU.

Judging by the preliminary results presented by Papandreou to the General Affairs Council, more than 70% of voters think the EU, and their own country, are "generally moving in the right direction today".

Some 84% thought the EU should have a bigger role in world affairs, with 64% thinking that Hans Blix and his UN weapons inspectors should be given more time in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the biggest concerns of 47% of the respondents were economic issues, compared to a mere 3% who were most worried about terrorism.

A series of so-called "special votes" is also being held: the first is to ascertain public views on what to do about Saddam Hussein.

Another, focusing on the EU's drugs' policy, has just been launched to coincide with a three-day conference on the issue beginning today (6 March) in Athens.

"There will be experts from all over Europe speaking on the [drugs] subject in Athens, so that will be a great opportunity to add citizens' concerns to the debate," said a Greek presidency official.

Subsequent special votes will be conducted on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), EU-US relations, EU policy on the disabled, and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Other items may be added in response to current events.

The presidency is also planning to hold regular votes on issues such as immigration and asylum; the Lisbon Agenda (18 March); enlargement (16 April) and sustainable development (6 May).

They are timed to coincide with key events on the same issues.

Questionnaires covering the broad themes appear in the 11 official EU languages.

From 16 April, to mark the signing of the accession treaty at the Acropolis, these will also be available in the languages of the ten new member states.

Details of the votes on specific subjects, however, are available only in French, English and Greek.

Papandreou was scheduled to launch the e-Vote project tomorrow in Brussels but the ceremony was postponed due to the minister being in the midst of crisis talks on Cyprus and Iraq, said a presidency spokesman.

"But the main thing is that the project is up and running," he added.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether the thousands of online responses will have any influence on EU policymakers once they have been confronted with them.

The EU's Greek presidency has come up with an easily accessible way for the public to beat the democratic deficit blues, by launching an online voting project on its website which poses a host of questions on topics ranging from Iraq to enlargement and immigration.