Between 4 and 7 June, nearly half a billion Europeans will elect their 736 representatives in the European Parliament.
This is an important appointment that now, since 1979, is repeated every five years, but to which the citizens of the continent's largest ever manifest disregard, if not annoying. At the last election voted just 46% of claimants: in Slovakia, the turnout was 17%, Poland by 21% in the United Kingdom, the turnout did not exceed 40% in Germany, Spain and France remained in below 50%. Of the few people who voted, many gave their preference to anti-European parties or the Eurosceptics, who took between 7 and 40% of the total voting power in countries like Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium , Ireland, Italy. Even in the forthcoming elections will herald the triumph of abstention and the success of anti-European parties (in Italy, we think the Northern League, which is credited by 10%) or the Eurosceptics (the PDL is given to 40%, 8% of the extreme left parties).
However, reasons for voting for the European Parliament, and to rate well, there would be, and how!
The European Parliament is a fundamental institution, and not just for symbolic reasons. The Parliament meets in Strasbourg democratically elected representatives of the third largest population of the earth, after China and India, and the first world economic power, and legislative powers has really expanded. Without exaggeration, we can say that 70% of the laws that govern all aspects of our lives are taken by the EP, or are determined by decisions taken by the EP. MEPs are called upon to write regulations in the field of labor, justice, schools and universities, scientific research, environment, family, health ... In many cases, the MEPs are the only ones to have a say on a given topic, even if they are to share their expertise with members of legislatures, their word is generally decisive: we could say that has more vote for the PE for national parliaments!
Then, the EP vote of confidence to the President of the European Commission and the Commission. Simplifying a lot, we could call the Commission as a kind of European government: she is running and the conduct of any laws in the areas citavamo earlier. Commission President Barroso is Portuguese, European People's Party. Barroso, on the one hand, an exponent of that right-wing liberalism that brought us the disastrous economic crisis we are experiencing today, on the other hand, due to its inertia, is the champion of the anti-Europeans and Eurosceptics, who want an EU weak and property. A victory of the political right to the EP elections would lead to an extension of Barroso, or the appointment of someone who follows his own failed policies, condemning them to another five-year long political inertia to the top of the Union.
The European Parliament, finally, is the only institution directly representative of the citizens throughout the European Union. The current structure of the EU, as evidenced by the stratification of fifty years of reform, certainly lack of democracy in many respects: too much power still remains in the hands of the Governments of the Member States, and many institutions, including the European Commission, acting too often it is autistic and self-referential. Not only the European Parliament is the only institution that has the possibility to defend the democratic demands in the European Union, but it is also the only body in Europe which is realistic to expect restart the process of evolution and reform Democratic Union, a process that is dramatically arrested almost a decade ago, and that's hard to leave. Without a strong commitment to PE, a federal and democratic reform of the EU will never happen, and we will be condemned to live in a weak and insignificant, surrounded by giants (some of which, however, very little democratic and not at all reassuring), such as China, Russia, India, Brazil and the United States.
In conclusion, I would say that there are many good reasons for not regarding the elections on 6 and 7 June a waste of time, but, indeed, a milestone for our future. So, vote, and vote right!
Stefano Gaggero
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