A couple of months ago we all complained that there is no tool for tracking MEP votes in the European Parliament. The times have changed and we now have literally a multitude of different websites that deal with the issue.
VoteWatch.eu, announced already a while ago, was finally launched today. It is quite a complex tool, which analyses various aspects of the parliamentary activity, from the MEPs attendance and number of reports drafted, to the political groups cohesion rates and voting coalitions. Beyond the statistical gimmicks (limited to the quantitative aspects), VoteWatch.eu also presents the content of the MEPs’ activities: on their profiles there are direct links to the reports drafted, the amendments written, the interventions in plenary, etc. Moreover, according to these criteria, you can compare, with a click, the respective MEP with all the others. The tool is, undoubtedly, useful for researchers and journalists with an interst in the EU and with a basic understanding of how the institutions work. However, it might prove to be a bit too complex for the normal citizens who want to find out what their MEPs are doing.
VoteWatch is a non profit project but it is sponsored by the Open Society Institute, Burson-Marsteller and ElectionMall.com (more to come apparently!) and developed by a team of experts including Sara Hagemann (EPC), Doru Frantescu (QVORUM), Simon Hix (LSE) and Abdul G. Noury (ULB).
Tony Barber writes on his Brussels Blog that the votewatch.eu will be expanded “later this year or early in 2010 (…) to include coverage of votes in the EU’s Council of Ministers”. And that is indeed long overdue and will defintely be a major step towards more transparency in the EU!
A couple of months ago we all complained that there is no tool for tracking MEP votes in the European Parliament. The times have changed and we now have literally a multitude of different websites that deal with the issue.
VoteWatch.eu, announced already a while ago, was finally launched today. It is quite a complex tool, which analyses various aspects of the parliamentary activity, from the MEPs attendance and number of reports drafted, to the political groups cohesion rates and voting coalitions. Beyond the statistical gimmicks (limited to the quantitative aspects), VoteWatch.eu also presents the content of the MEPs' activities: on their profiles there are direct links to the reports drafted, the amendments written, the interventions in plenary, etc. Moreover, according to these criteria, you can compare, with a click, the respective MEP with all the others. The tool is, undoubtedly, useful for researchers and journalists with an interst in the EU and with a basic understanding of how the institutions work. However, it might prove to be a bit too complex for the normal citizens who want to find out what their MEPs are doing.
VoteWatch is a non profit project but it is sponsored by the Open Society Institute, Burson-Marsteller and ElectionMall.com (more to come apparently!) and developed by a team of experts including Sara Hagemann (EPC), Doru Frantescu (QVORUM), Simon Hix (LSE) and Abdul G. Noury (ULB).
Tony Barber writes on his Brussels Blog that the votewatch.eu will be expanded "later this year or early in 2010 (...) to include coverage of votes in the EU's Council of Ministers". And that is indeed long overdue and will defintely be a major step towards more transparency in the EU!
blogged about VoteWatch.eu: http://is.gd/yVyJ; quite an interesting tool, but how useful for the normal citizen?
The Council of Ministers is the most undemocratic decision making body in Europe. Certainly Votewatch.eu is a welcome prospect and should hopefully put an end to generations of politicians who wilfully blamed Brussels for Directives. Now, at least, we will know how Ministers actually vote.
Other interesting websites that I have come across are Micandidate.eu and EU profiler.
The former is a massive database with all the candidates running in the Euro-elections. I’m sure there are a few ‘odd balls’ on that site. Although I haven’t found any yet. Has anybody found any unsavoury characters. Any general opinions about the site?
The latter is useful for underpinning ones’ true political colours. Although, for my profile in Ireland I was left in the political wilderness, totally un-represented. Maybe I should start a political party?