Posts in "Austria" Category

Analysis, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Digital, European Parliament, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom / 30 June 2014

The new European Parliament on Twitter: look who’s talking

Download our PDF infographic of the new European Parliament on Twitter

As predicted, more MEPs are on Twitter than ever before (531 compared to 408 in the previous EP), and almost half are tweeting every day.

Our infographic of the new European Parliament on Twitter shows this increase in the number of Twitter users also brings in some significant new faces: Pablo Iglesias, a Spanish Podemos MEP who is the radical left candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament, has more than 400,000 followers – far ahead of leading tweeters from the last parliament (such as Marine Le Pen, Martin Schulz or Nigel Farage). The GUE/NGL Group also has the biggest proportion of daily tweeters.

On the opposite side of the hemicycle, nearly 80% of MEPs from the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) Group are on Twitter. The group also features the Parliament’s two most prolific tweeters (both new MEPs from the UK Independence Party – it remains to be seen if they will remain so active when they take up their roles as MEPs).

Britain at the heart of Europe – on Twitter, at least

Never mind the Pollock-style imagery: Axel Maireder‘s data-rich map of the European Twittersphere contains some fascinating insights into online conversations around the European Parliament elections.

Behind the explosion of colours is two months of tweets about the elections analysed by Maireder and his team at the University of Vienna, in collaboration with market research institute GfK. They tracked more than 1.3 million tweets from nearly half a million Twitter users to develop a map of the online political landscape.

Read the study by the University of Vienna and GfK Read more on the GfK website

The map – which features the 11,844 accounts that tweeted at least once about the elections and which were followed by at least 250 other accounts that also tweeted – helpfully visualises the most important and influential users who talked about the 25 May polls. Larger dots indicate a larger number of followers; the closer they are plotted, the greater the similarity in their followings.

But what is the meaning of this map and this data? And how can we use it?

Building a new Commission – the runners and riders for the next College

[infopane color=”6″ icon=”0049.png”]Post updated later on Wednesday 11 June to account for news that Dacian Cioloș (Agriculture and Rural Development; Romania) may be re-nominated to the Commission.[/infopane]

With the choice of a President of the European Commission still up in the air, we are a long way off knowing the full team that will occupy the upper floors of the Berlaymont for the next five years.

Nevertheless, national governments are already putting forward their proposed nominees to sit in the new College. Here’s our look at the comings and goings in the Commission in 2014, and the potential candidates to take a seat in the new Commission.

If you have comments or suggestions, please include them in the comments box.

See our country-by-country guide to the potential nominees

Who’s going where? Tracking the musical chairs in the European Parliament

[infopane color=”5″ icon=”0049.png”]Please note that since the constitutive session of the European Parliament on 1 July 2014, this page is no longer being updated.[/infopane]

EPP	S&D	ALDE	G/EFA	ECR	EFDD	GUE/NGL	NI
221	191	67	50	70	48	52	52
27 countries	28 countries	21 countries	17 countries	15 countries	7 countries	14 countries	10 countries

The 2014 European elections brought 34 new parties or independent candidates to the European Parliament.

Now, many of those new MEPs are seeking to join political groups to strengthen their voice in the Parliament, while a battle goes on between the groups to attract new members that help ensure their survival and maximise their influence, speaking time and funding.

One new group – the European Alliance for Freedom – has also been mooted as a way to bring together anti-EU parties on the radical right. To form this and other groups, a minimum of 25 MEPs are needed, representing at least seven member states.

At the same time, other parties are considering changing groups or allying themselves to a group for the first time.

Take a look at our table listing the parties up for grabs, based on the vast array of information from intelligence we have gathered and media reports – and contribute via the button below or the comments box at the bottom of the page.

Elections round-up: EPP loses but stays as biggest group, while anti-EU parties surge

Europe’s voters have backed a vast array of anti-EU and anti-establishment voters in the 2014 European Parliament elections, sending fewer MEPs from each of the main political groups back to Brussels and Strasbourg.

Despite being the biggest loser of the night in terms of seats, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) looks like emerging as the biggest party in the European Parliament with its support holding up in Germany and Poland among the larger member states, and good support across central and Eastern Europe. The Socialists are also set to lose a handful of seats, with the Liberals likely to lose around 20 seats according to the latest projections.

The populist challenge and the mainstream response

Marley Morris of Counterpoint, a UK-based research group that focuses on cultural and social dynamics underpinning politics, economics and security, writes on the prospect of an increase in populist voices at the European elections:

The European Parliament elections contain a strange contradiction.

The next parliament, thanks to the Lisbon Treaty, will have more power than any of its predecessors. It will be able to elect the President of the European Commission for the first time. Vast areas of vital policy – not least the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – are at stake. And as the first pan-European elections since the worst moments of the eurozone crisis, the results will be analysed as a crucial gauge of public opinion.

And yet there is still a long way to go to making the European Parliament elections comparable in status to national polls. Eurobarometer tells us that only 54 per cent of European Union citizens are aware that the European Parliament is directly elected.

Efforts by the mainstream European-level parties to tout their ‘lead candidates’ seem to have had limited success, with many voters unaware of the contest, and numerous commentators suspecting that the next Commission president may well be someone else entirely.

A populist surge?

Ten days from the elections, the expectation is that apathy will translate into success for Eurosceptics and populists at the polls.

Marine Le Pen (right), the leader of France’s populist radical right National Front (FN) party, and Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam and Eurosceptic Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, pledged last year to join forces. They plan to form a political group with like-minded parties in the new Parliament. Wilders has said of the proposed alliance: “We will have an enormous influence… We are working on a historical project.”

The first head-to-head: much ado about very little

A little bit of European political history was made yesterday, with the first televised head-to-head debate between candidates for the European Commission presidency.

The first debate between Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz – the lead candidates for the European People’s Party and the Party of European Socialists – took place in Brussels and was broadcast live on France 24, with a replay later that evening on Radio France International.

It is the first in a series of debates between the lead candidates (see panel) – and there is definitely scope for improvement if the candidates – and broadcasters – truly want to engage people in the discussion on Europe’s future leadership.

[infopane color=”6″ icon=”0869.png”]Next live TV debates

Juncker v Schulz
8 May at 20:15 CET – broadcast on ÖRF (Austria) and ZDF (Germany), in German
20 May at 21:00 CET – broadcast on ARD (Germany), in German

Open to all candidates (note: Alexis Tsipras not confirmed for 28 April and 9 May)
28 April at 19:00 CET – broadcast on Euronews
9 May at 18:30 CET – broadcast on Rai (Italy)
15 May at 21:00 CET – organised by the EBU – national coverage may vary[/infopane]

My overall view on the France 24 / RFI debate is that it that it was rather dull in format and content – everyone was playing things a bit safe. It’s natural for a first debate, but if the candidates and broadcasters want to engage voters, there needs to be more dynamism.

50 days to go, 50 things to know about Europe’s year of change

The countdown continues: at 08:00 CET on Wednesday 2 April, there are exactly 50 days to go to the opening of the polls for the European Parliament elections.

Here is our overview of where we stand and what you need to know about Europe’s year of change:

Top jobs | Country-by-country | PollWatch 2014 | The elections and beyond | Reading list

Weekend round-up: PES Congress confirms Schulz as common candidate

Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament, was officially confirmed as the ‘common candidate’ of the Party of European Socialists during an election congress in Rome.

Schulz – the only candidate – was backed by 368 delegates in the Italian capital. Two delegates opposed Schulz and 34 abstained.

In his acceptance speech, Schulz set out his priorities should he become President of the European Commission. He highlighted that his first priority would be employment, a theme that is also prominent in the Socialist manifesto, also adopted in Rome.

The Congress welcomed the Italian Democratic Party (PD) as its newest member, with the moniker ‘Socialists and Democrats’ now added to the Party’s logo – possibly hinting that the parliamentary Socialists and Democrats Group, whose name was changed to reflect the inclusion of the PD, will revert to the ‘PES’ name after the elections.

Read our Storify of the PES Congress (storify.com) See our photos from the Congress (flickr.com)

PES manifesto (pes.eu) Martin Schulz’ speech (pes.eu) Martin Schulz campaign website

The election of Schulz as the Socialists’ common candidate means that the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) is the only main party yet to officially name its candidate.

On Friday, Michel Barnier – the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services – joined the race, nominated by his own party (France’s Union for a Popular Movement) and backed by EPP member parties in Hungary and Slovenia.

Barnier will face the former prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker (also backed by parties in Germany and Greece), who is favourite to win the nomination, and former Latvian PM Valdis Dombrovskis, who is supported by parties in Estonia and Lithuania, as well as his own party.

EPP delegates will pick the party’s lead candidate in Dublin on Friday.

EPP Dublin Elections Congress website

The European Democratic Party, whose members include the Democratic Movement (MoDem) in France, adopted its manifesto and will chose its common candidate on 12 March.

EDP manifesto (pde-edp.eu)

A number of national parties also selected candidates for the European Parliament elections this weekend (click the country name to go to the candidates list for that country):
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Finland: the centre-right National Coalition Party (Kok) added Marjatta Rasin and Kai Pontisen to its list of candidates, while the Greens confirmed its list of candidates, adding former MEP and former minister Heidi Hautala to their roster.
Estonia: the Reform Party of outgoing PM Andrus Ansip and Commission vice-president Siim Kallas chose its candidates, including Kallas’ daughter, Kaja Kallas. Like Finland, Estonia operates an ‘open list’ system.
France: the centrist ‘Europeans’ – made up of MoDem and the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) – have provisionally chosen their heads of lists, with final confirmation due to come in the next ten days.
Austria: both main parties confirmed their candidates: the Social Democrats (SPÖ) added a further five candidates to the original list of five headed by Eugen Freund, a former TV journalist and four current MEPs; the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) has four MEPs on its list, which is headed by Othmar Karas, a vice-president of the European Parliament; and Europe – Another Way (Europa Anders), a list composed of independents, Pirates, Communists and the left-wing Change party (Der Wandel), picked Martin Ehrenhauser MEP and Ulli Fuchs as lead candidates. Ehrenhauser, an independent, was elected on the Hans-Peter Martin list in 2009.
Luxembourg: the Greens chose current MEP Claude Turmes to lead the party’s list.
Czech Republic: the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which has nine MEPs in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group, chose Group vice-president Jan Zahradil as head of its list. The party – which is likely to return less than half of its current number of members – put current MEP and former party leadership contender Edvard Kožušník in tenth place.
Portugal: the two main centre-right parties in the EPP, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Democratic and Social Centre – People’s Party (CDS-PP), agreed an electoral pact called ‘Portugal Alliance’. Under the agreement, the CDS-PP lead candidate, Nuno Melo MEP, will be in fourth place. The PSD’s Paulo Rangel MEP will lead the list.
Italy: a Liberal list backing Guy Verhofstadt for the Commission presidency, and which will include the Civic Choice party of former prime minister Mario Monti, is expected to be named on Tuesday. Another list in the name of a Commission presidency candidate also named its first candidates. The ‘Tsipras List’ will back the European Left‘s candidate for the presidency, Alexis Tsipras.
Spain: after a fractious debate with its many member groupings, the United Left (IU), which sits in the European United Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group in the Parliament and is expected to dramatically increase its number of MEPs, chose Willy Meyer MEP to head its list. Ramon Tremosa i Balcells MEP, a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group, was named at the head of the list for the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia party.
Belgium: the Flemish Socialist party (sp.a) confirmed Kathleen Van Brempt MEP and Saïd El-Khadraoui MEP at the head of its list and named the rest of its candidates.
Poland: Europa Plus – Your Movement (EPTR), a centrist movement, named their full lists. With the party’s support up for grabs, a party rally was addressed by Guy Verhofstadt, signalling that any MEPs from the party may join the ALDE Group. The lists include current Socialists and Democrats Group MEP Marek Siwiec and a former member of the Group, Genowefa Grabowska, as well as a former President of Poland and co-founder of the list, Aleksander Kwaśniewski.
Cyprus: the centre-right Democratic Rally (DISY) named its initial slate of candidates, including current EPP MEPs Andreas Pitsillides and Eleni Theocharous. Government spokesperson Christos Styliandes was also on the list and suggested that he may succeed Androulla Vassiliou as Cyprus’ nominee to the European Commission.
Netherlands: the Party for the Animals named its provisional list of candidates.

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Read our lists of European Parliament candidates

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, European Commission, European Council, European Parliament, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom / 10 February 2014

100 days to go, 100 things to know about Europe’s year of change

At 07:00 CET on Tuesday 11 February, there was exactly 100 days to go to the opening of the polls for the European Parliament elections.

As the countdown to the elections intensifies, here is our overview of where we stand: