At an event inside the European Parliament hosted by MEP Graham Watson, the Club of Rome – EU Chapter and the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, the cornerstones for a possible future global democracy were debated on the occasion of a special screening of the documentary “World Vote Now” by Joel Ben Marsden.

This conference is one of the first opportunities for citizens, civil society groups and academics to feed into the Commission’s thinking on democracy in Europe under Lisbon.

The Lisbon Treaty enters into force today and introduces provisions which will change the institutional balance of the EU. The democratic deficit which sprang, at least in part, from institutional weaknesses is now supposed to shrink under clearer administration and leadership of the Union. Yet the question remains of how EU citizens perceive the EU, what they know about it and how they see the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty. How might this change now?

It looks likely that the next European Commission will have even less women than the previous one. European Alternatives launches a campaign for greater gender equality based on more democracy at the European level. Beyond the statistics, let’s create a democratic Europe!

Migration is widely recognised as the crucial worldwide political issue for the coming century, and there is no area of politics which in which it does not enter.

The European Parliament is studying the possibility of taking a position on the risk of a violation to media freedom and pluralism in Italy, and has called a first plenary assembly for October 7th, in Brussels, to discuss the issue. On the 22nd of October a vote will take place on a resolution, and we urge our fellow MEPs to support it.

On Thursday 17th September leaders of the European political parties have agreed to call a mini-plenary session on the 8th of October to discuss the state of media freedom and pluralism in Italy.

In “Coulisses de Bruxelles, UE”, Jean Quatremer, reports that Jerzy Buzek has been elected president of the European Parliament in the first round with 555 out of 644 votes and 713 present out of 736 MEPs.
Supported by the three first political groups of the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Buzek’s election came as no surprise to anyone.

Last week the British government published its “Digital Britain” report on the future of communications in the UK.

The results of the recent European Parliament’s elections are quite satisfactory concerning the progress of gender equality. However, the world’s average participation rate of women in parliament is around 17%.