European Parliament elections - 6 Jun - day 3

Voting in the elections for the European Parliament is taking place today in 6 countries:

Cyprus
Czech Republic (*)
Italy (+)
Latvia
Malta
Slovakia

(*) Second day of voting in the Czech Republic.
(+) Voting continues tomorrow in Italy

Cyprus - The Cyprus News Agency has information about voter profiles and other relevant information here. Some facts about the Cyprus are in the European Parliament website here. Will the two parts of Cyprus ever be reunited? Despite the apparent willingness of the parties to talk, their genuine commitment to this eventuality is not clear - see here and here. The incentive for Cyprus (i.e. the southern 'Greek' part which is currently an EU member) to progress these talks is not all that great in my view - they already have what they want as I wrote at the time the country became an EU member, here and here. Should the divided Cyprus ever have been permitted to join the EU under the cobbled-together 'solution' of five years ago? I have no definite answer although I tend to believe the answer should have been 'no', but we are where we are.

Czech Republic - Read about voting in the Czech Republic here. Some facts about the Czech Republic are in the European Parliament website here. The Euronews website has updates about the voting in the Czech Republic here.

Italy - Like the Czech Republic, Italy holds its European Parliament elections over two days, although not the same two days. The country's parlous economic and unemployment situation, not to mention domestic political controversy involving the personal life of its Prime Minister are, together with worries about immigration, the hot topics of interest to Italian voters. Some facts about Italy are in the European Parliament website here.

Latvia - Latvia faces tough economic problems just now and its currency is decidedly weak; it's believed that the reprecussions could adversely affect other eastern European countries, too. The rise of the 'Russophone' parties, following the anti-Russian policies enacted soon after independence, is likely to change the political complexion of the country in the longer term, too. See also here. Some facts about Latvia are in the European Parliament website here.

Malta - The Times of Malta has some information about numbers of eligible voters in this tiny country. Some facts about Malta are in the European Parliament website here.

Slovakia - A survey in May indicated that Slovaks may once again be those least-interested in taking part in the European Parliament elections as only 12 per cent of voters indicated they were sure to vote. As in several other eastern European countries, hate-crimes against their gypsy population are a particular problem in Slovakia, 'whipped-up' by 'right-wing'(~) political parties. Some facts about Slovakia are in the European Parliament website here.

(~) Such parties are often characterised as 'right wing', but close examination of their policies usually reveals them to be, in actual fact, extreme 'left wing' political parties, however much the more moderate left wing parties object to such an analysis; the same considerations apply to some extremist political parties in western Europe (e.g. the BNP in the UK, or most notoriously the German National Socialist Workers Party (NSDAP) of the 1930s and the 1940s).

Two more join the club - Cyprus and Malta adopt the Euro

Two of the recent (2004) intake into the European Union, Cyprus and Malta, have adopted the Euro as their currency from midnight last night, taking the currency union from 13 to 15 of the 27 EU members. The fixed converion rates to the new currency are €1.71 for 1 Cyprus Pound, whereas a Maltese Lira is fixed at €2.34 . The Cypriot Euro coins will be inscribed in both Greek and Turkish and the two British 'sovereign bases' on Cyprus will become the first two British sovereign territories to adopt the Euro as legal tender, a practical measure resulting from the fact that roughly 10,000 Cypriots live or work there. (NB/ For those not aware of it, the Euro banknotes are standard throughout the Eurozone and do not vary from country to country; only the coins vary on one side depending on which Eurozone member country has issued them.)

Joaquín Almunia, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, remarked:

"Today with the adoption of the euro, Cyprus and Malta have become even more integrated in the heart of the European Union, less than four years after they joined the EU. This is thanks to the stability-orientated economic policies pursued by both countries, which I hope will continue after they adopted the euro. I encourage the Cypriots and the Maltese to embrace our shared currency with confidence because they are entering a monetary union that has proven its worth in terms of price stability and low interest rates."

With inflation beginning to rear its ugly head in some of the Meditteranean EU members and economies which have become severely over-heated (e.g. Spain), things are not quite so rosy for some of the existing countries which use the Euro, though. Nevertheless I expect the change will make life easier for both Cypriots and Maltese and for those visiting the two countries, specially from other countries within the currency union.