Facts and Figures about the European Election

Ten facts you know about the European Election you did not know yesterday:

1. In total citizens in over 28 European countries have got the right to vote.

2. The election will take place on four different days. The Netherlands and United Kingdom will start, German citizens have got the great opportunity on May 25th.

3. The next term is five years long.

4. The election has its own hashtag - #ep14

5. On April 28th the “Wahl-O-Mat” about the #ep14 goes online. This is a online tool which is provided by a German political education agency (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung), which helps to find out more about the political aims and thesis. Just follow the link: http://www.bpb.de/politik/wahlen/wahl-o-mat/

6. The leading candidate for the conservative group is from Luxembourg. This is the smallest country in the European Union.

7. The leading candidate of the social democrats is a German bookshop owner.

8. The new parliament will have 750 members and one president.

9. Malta and Luxembourg are sending just six members of the European Parliament (MEP) to Brussels.

10. Germany are sending 96 MEPs to Brussels.

European timeline in ten steps:

1. September 19th 1946: Churchill’s Europe speech. “A kind of United States of Europe”, is the basis for a peaceful and wealthy future according to the British Prime Minister. 

2. May 5th 1949: Ten states established the “Council of Europe” (in German: Europarat). This institution was planned as the first common European authority. One of the biggest achievements of the “Council of Europe” is the “European Convention on Human Rights”.

3. After the second world war Robert Schumans idea to keep Germans power ordinary was to control the German coal and steel production. The “European Coal and Steel Community was established in May 9th 1950. Due to the impossibility of wars between member states (for instance France, United Kingdom and Germany) it would encourage peace for Europe.

4. The “Euratom Treaty” - a contract signed in Rome on March 25th 1957, is an extension for the “European Coal and Steel Community”. A few European countries arrange an additional economic cooperation. Moreover they planned to use nuclear power stations for civil use.

5. July 1968: The European Union got a common costumes duty system.

6. 1973: United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark are new members of the European Union.

7. Today we are used to pay our bills in Euros. However this wasn´t like this for many years. In March 1979 several European countries took the first step (the so called “European Monetary System”) towards a shared currency.

8. March 1995: The Schengen agreement made travelling in Europe easy and borderless. Ireland and United Kingdom are not included.

9. Bulgaria and Romania became new members of the European Union in January 2007.

10. The “Treaty of Lisabon” superseded the “Maastricht Treaty” and the “Treaty of Rome” and entered into force on December 1st 2009. Originally this agreement was designed as a constitution, however not every government supported the idea about establishing a European supranational policy frame.

Ten websites which collect useful information about #ep14:

http://www.bpb.de/politik/wahlen/europawahl-2014/

http://www.spiegel.de/thema/europawahl_2014/

http://www.bpb.de/politik/wahlen/wahl-o-mat/

http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/eu-elections-2014/index_en.htm

http://bundeswahlleiter.de/de/europawahlen/EU_BUND_14/

http://juncker.epp.eu

http://www.martin-schulz.eu

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ep14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2014

http://www.elections2014.eu/en