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).

The club expands - Slovakia will adopt the Euro wef 1JAN09

Slovakia will become the 16th of the current 27 members of the European Union to adopt the Euro as its currency on 1 January 2009. The fixed conversion rate between the Euro (EUR) and the existing Slovak national currency (SKK) is €1 = 30.1260 SKK.

The 15 EU countries currently using the Euro as their currency are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

Of the other 11 countries, two (Denmark and the UK) have negotiated opt-outs which mean they have no obligation, ever, to adopt the Euro as their currency if they do not wish to do so. The main Swedish political parties have agreed not to join the Euro until approval in a national referendum is given; a referendum in 2003 rejected adoption so Sweden has chosen not to join ERM II. Full details of each EU member's status vis-a-vis the Euro may be viewed here.

You can see images of the Euro coins being issued by Slovakia to coincide with its adoption of the Euro as its currency here. Euro notes are uniform throughout the Eurozone and show no differences from country to country.

Scotland as seen from parts of Europe ...

... with varying degrees of desire for independence. A BBC Scotland reporter has been travelling around various parts of Europe, reorting for BBC Radio Scotland's 'Good Morning Scotland' programme, about the differing views on regional autonomy or independence in various countries of Europe. David Miller, the reporter who made the trip, has written a blog to record his impressions during his week-long travels to the Galicia region of Spain, to Rome and finally to Slovakia's capital, Bratislava. I'd say his reports are pretty balanced and attempt to look at the issues from both the 'unionist' and the 'independence' sides of the Scottish political debate. Anyone who has read my blog before will know which side of the debate I am on - I favour Scotland remaining in political partnership with England and with the other countries of the United Kingdom. Read the whole of Miller's blog for yourself - there are things to please all strands of Scottish opinion, although the final comment from his visit to Bratislava is perhaps the most telling:

In Slovakia, independence has been a success and has made a real difference to people's lives. Slovakians are wealthier than they've ever been. But can that success be attributed to independence or free-market economics? Could those advances have been achieved within a united Czechoslovakia? Even the most senior politicians here in Bratislava can't decide on the answer to that question.

I think BBC Scotland's research may allow a more balanced perspective than seems to have been on the agenda at the recent European Free Alliance ministerial 'summit' in Edinburgh which I wrote about a few days ago.

NB/ I rarely lissten to BBC Radio Scotland myself as I normally listen to Radio 4 for my 'voice radio', so I have not heard David Miller's radio reports on his trip, excerpts of which have been on 'Good Morning Scotland' this week it seems, but I'll listen shortly to this morning's show through the BBC's listen again facility to get a flavour - you can too by clicking here, presumably available until replaced by the next programme tomorrow morning.