Parliament launches poll campaign in bid to boost turnout

By Martin Banks

Date: 19/02/04

BOSSES at the European Parliament are gearing up to sell Europe's merits to a sceptical public ahead of this summer's European elections.

As part of a major drive to promote voter turnout in the 10-13 June poll, buses will shortly hit the campaign trail in each of the ten new member states joining the Union on 1 May.

The vehicles, each manned by specially selected Parliamentary staff, will spend ten days touring each country, distributing information about the Parliament's work and powers.

Staff will also organize conferences and seminars and give talks to selected groups. They will remind people of the date and will make the case for voting by listing areas of daily life over which Brussels, and particularly the Parliament, has influence.

The move is part of an initiative, called "A New Europe", aimed at generating interest in the elections, the first in which voters from accession states will take part.

A special website will be launched to include lists of candidates standing in the election and detailing Parliament's achievements, particularly in the field of food safety and environmental concerns.

Billboards announcing the date of the elections will be unveiled on landmark buildings in each EU capital and the poll will also be promoted at forthcoming major sporting events.

The average turnout in the 1999 European elections was just under 50%, the lowest since direct elections were first held in 1979. Turnout was highest in the three countries where voting is compulsory, Belgium (90%), Luxembourg (85%) and Greece (70%).

Spaniard Juana Lahousse-Juarez, who heads a 25-strong Parliamentary election task force, said: "I want to stress we will not be delivering any sort of political message - we'll leave that to the politicians.

"The aim of this action plan is simply to raise public awareness of the European Parliament and encourage turnout in this year's elections.

"We obviously hope that turnout will go above the 50% mark this time, but we are not setting any targets."

Specific measures will also be taken in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which recorded the lowest turnout in 1999, with just 24 and 29%.

In the UK, where a recent opinion poll revealed that fewer than one-in-five Britons can be relied upon to vote in the elections, telephone canvassers will urge hundreds of thousands of people to exercise their democratic right to vote.

In the Netherlands, a series of television advertisements are planned.

The campaign will run from the end of this month until 9 May.

Meanwhile, Brussels-based think-tanks have added their voice to calls for the European political parties to name their candidates for the next Commission president, which is seen as a way of boosting participation in the election.

Max Kohnstamm, president of the European Policy Centre, said that "public perception of the Union's legitimacy clearly needs strengthening by having citizens participate directly in the decision concerning who will preside over the new Commission. This will only be the case if the parties concerned announce their candidate in time for he, or she, to take part in the election campaign."