The European Parliament Elections will take place from 4 to 7 June 2009. This is an important opportunity for citizens to make their voices heard at a European level and QCEA will be supporting Friends and those in sympathy with Friends in their endeavours to engage with this process. This is part of our work on the development of the European Union Institutions and follows on from work on the Convention on the Future of Europe (2001-2003), the European Parliament Elections (2004) the European Constitutional Treaty (2003-2005), and the European Budget Review (2007 onwards).

The purpose of this programme of work is to:
1. Make available helpful and accessible information to citizens to enable them to engage with the current political processes within the European Union Institutions
2. Make available material on key issues which QCEA is working on in a format to make its use in the context of these processes easy
3. Identify sources of useful information provided by others
4. Engage with decision makers directly where this is appropriate.

This part of our programme – as all others – does not have a party political dimension but in the case of the European Parliament election process this does bear repeating. We do not endorse the manifestos of any political party or group; and we do not recommend voting behaviour beyond a recommendation to use the vote.

We welcome feedback on all of the work we do. But in the context of an election, this is even more important. We would love to hear from Friends and anyone in sympathy with Friends who uses this material so that we know how useful you have found it and what use you have made of it. In particular, we would be interested to hear of any interactions you have had with MEP candidates.

For anyone comments and queries please contact Anya Whiteside

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