European Parliament Elections

The next Commission President?

April 24, 2012
By Stephen
The next Commission President?

European Commissioner Viviane Reding (Photo credit: Wikipedia) According to Euractiv jostling for the nomination for the next European Commission President has begun. As the next President will be picked based on the who is the largest party in the next European Parliament, elected in 2014, it will be a contest between European People’s Party, EPP, (currently the largest party) and the Party of European Socialists ,PES, the next largest party, who sit as the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and...

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The European Parliament elections 2014 will be huge – But not in Ireland

April 15, 2012
By Stephen
The European Parliament elections 2014 will be huge – But not in Ireland

Ronny has a good post on his blog why the next the European Parliament Elections will be different from past ones. This election will quiet important with both the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the European People’s Party (EPP) putting forward agreed candidates for the post of President of the European Commission. There is also the possibility of the Pirate Party becoming a European political force as they will be running in most of the countries of the European...

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2009

December 31, 2009
By Stephen
2009

Image by mugley via Flickr What a year! 2009 is approaching its end and its been and up and down year for me. Blogging What a year for me and blogging! It started off great being selected for the first Th!nk about it competition and then that led to other cool projects, again involving European Journalism Centre and the Anna Lindh Foundation. I of course moved the blog .com and its bein great doing that. I have gotten involved...

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Euroblog Round up #1

December 11, 2009
By Stephen
Euroblog Round up #1

So as an editor over on bloggingportal.eu I have great access to a huge number of blogs and can help choose what goes on the front page. Unfortunately not everything I would like can go on the front page (there are others there also) I will do a regularish posting like this one to publicise some of the other things going on in the euroblogosophere, whether on the front page or not! Dont expect this daily or weekly mind...

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The end of the Ind/Dem Grouping?

June 10, 2009
By Stephen
The end of the Ind/Dem Grouping?

The Independence/Democracy grouping had a rough campiagn and lost a few MEPs including their co-leader. But will they exist as a political grouping in the next Parliament? To form a grouping in the European Parliament you need a minimum of 25 MEPs from at least seven member states. After last elections the Ind/Dem were left with 18 MEPs from four member states. They are: UK: 13 UKIP MEPs Greece: 2 Popular Orthodox Rally MEPs Netherlands: 2 Christian Union MEPs...

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It finally gets interesting: Barroso Vs Verhofstadt

June 10, 2009
By Stephen
It finally gets interesting: Barroso Vs Verhofstadt

I was giving out during the election campaign that the PES didnt have a candidate for Commission President. Despite the fact the PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen wants the job, its looking highly unlikely that he will not be the PES nominee. Instead the Greens, ALDE and PES look set to team up to try and get former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt elected as Commission President according to euractiv.com instead of  José Manuel Barroso. Verhofstadt’s party the Vlaamse...

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FF and FG to be in coalition in Europe?

June 9, 2009
By Stephen
FF and FG to be in coalition in Europe?

Negotiations are underway for the top jobs in Europe now that the results of the weekends elections are known. The European Peoples Party (EPP), which Fine Gael is part of, has emerged as the largest party in the European Parliament with 263 seats. For a majority in the parliament 379 seats are needed. The ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), which Fianna Fail is part of, has 80 seats giving a combined ALDE-EPP link up of 343...

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Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead: Ind/Dem Loses its Co-Leader

June 8, 2009
By Stephen
Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead: Ind/Dem Loses its Co-Leader

Kathy Sinnott (Ind/Dem) is no longer an MEP! Results from the Count Centre in Cork show that Senator Alan Kelly of Labour has beaten Sinnott on the final count for the final seat in Ireland South. It was a mixed day in Cork with at one point looking like Toireasa Ferris of Sinn Fein was in a shout of the last the seat, but she failed to attracted enough transfers and Sinnott leap frogged past her. It was then...

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Election Day reading

June 5, 2009
By Stephen
Election Day reading

Its polling day! The polls are now open so if you haven’t decided who to vote for read some of these posts: A vote for Labour is a vote for Fianna Fáil – Mulley.net How to vote to hurt Fianna Fail without helping Sinn Fein. – jasonomahony.ie Why Vote Fine Gael – StephenSpillane.com (I’ll update this post as the day goes on)

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Eve of Election Prediction

June 4, 2009
By Stephen
Eve of Election Prediction

So Predict09 have their final prediction up. They have the European Groupings as follows: EPP: 262 seats PES: 194 ALDE: 85 UEN/EC: 53 Greens-EFA: 50 EUL/NGL: 40 Ind/Dem: 23 Non-insrcit: 30 So the EPP will be the largest party by far in the next European Parliament. So Barroso is safe enough I would say. Looking at Ireland, they are predicting no major changes in the line up. They have the parties on the following (the increase is in realtion...

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