In order to foster a better understanding of the European parliament functioning and a better dialogue between citizens and their European representatives so as to promote a better participation in the European construction, the Jacques Delors Institute with the support of the European Parliament, in collaboration with VoteWatch Europe publishes vote sheets which assess the MEP’s mid-term votes on 20 key issues.
In order to make the project benefit to populations where the EU is at stake, we deem particularly relevant to work hand in hand with civil society partners from:

• Czech Republic (Europeum), where the last European election’s turnout was of 18.2% and where debates on the EU are lively;
• France (European Movement – France), where the Presidential elections campaign touches upon European issues and where, despite the presence of the EP seat on its territory, general public is very little aware of the MEP’s work ;
• Greece (To Diktio), where the crisis hit among the hardest and where the EU rules implementation are subject to controversy

1. Infographics vote analysis (May 2014 – December 2016)

Building on its experience gained while realising a similar project in 2014[1] project, the Jacques Delors Institute and its European partners selected 20 key issues which are of great importance for citizens in order to analyse how the European representatives voted on it up to their mid-term mandate. These infographics and analyses can be shared on the social networks as well as during physical and online events, shaped so as to reach the citizens who are less aware of the European dimension of certain issues.
In order to select MEP’s vote, we took 20 topics and particularly those which are currently at the heart of public debates in Europe. These subjects are: TTIP/TAFTA, European Budget, Relations with Iran, Refugee crisis; Youth guarantees; Glyphosate authorisation renewal; etc.
The infographics and analyses are translated into the languages of the partners and disseminated through targeted campaigns on the social networks, but also via the local press, since our previous experience in 2014 showed us how crucial this press is when you want to spread information about European politics.

2. Local citizen dialogues (2017 – beyond)

Local citizen dialogues are to be organised in the territories in France, Czech Republic and Greece in order to make MEPs have a dialogue with citizens on these issues in early 2017 and beyond.
In France, thanks to a close collaboration with the Mouvement Européen, such events are to take place in 5 Euro-constituencies. In the other partners’ countries, since there is only one Euro-constituency each, two events are to be organised in order to be able to reach a wider audience.
A campaign is to be held before the debates in the local media and on the social networks to raise awareness about the results of the analyses of the MEP’s votes and so as to gather reactions and questions on these issues and on the MEP’s votes. This campaign will allow us to design the debates’ questions upon citizen’s actual view on these issues.
These local dialogues are to be organised with the local press and with at least one local civil society organisation, if possible not directly linked to European issues so as to reach out to as wide an audience as possible.

3. Citizen Web Dialogues (2017)

We will take the opportunity of having gathered MEPs during local events to have them participate in Citizens Web Dialogues, allowing them to answer in an interactive way the questions of citizens on diverse issues. These dialogues consist in a 30 minutes interview which is broadcasted online on the partners’ websites and allow viewers to ask questions before and during the Citizen Web Dialogue through the social media via a journalist whose channel also broadcasts the dialogue online.