Brussels, 17/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The “Newropeans” political party has existed since 2005 and is the first trans-European political movement for the democratisation of the European Union. It will stand for the European elections in 2009 in several EU member states with joint lists of candidates under the same name and programme. In the elections this June, Newropeans aims to attain 5%-10% of the European vote and set up a group of around 50-75 MEPs.
Newropeans has chosen its heads of lists for Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Candidates for Hungary, Austria, Spain and Belgium and some other countries will be selecting their heads of list soon. This list demonstrates that candidates represent the European interest rather than their own national interests. The heads of lists include: Frank Biancheri, the president of Newropeans and founder of the Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe (AEGEE) for South East France; Marianne Cormier-Ranke, a Franco-German legal specialist representing the Ile-de-France region; Danilo Del Gaizo, an Italian prosecutor for Italy in the Central, Southern, islands and North East regions; Margit Reiser-Schober, German political scientist and member of the party's steering committee, for Germany; and Arno Uijlenhoet, founder of a consultancy and representing the Netherlands.
The new party wants to establish a genuine European electoral system for elections of the European Parliament and give the latter the right of veto. It wants to replace the Commission with a European government accountable to Parliament and set up trans-European referendums for all questions relating to future enlargement and treaty amendments. Newropeans says that it is against the Lisbon Treaty because its ratification process would be anti-democratic. (E.M./transl.rh)