Let's prepare 2023 together!

Fundraising campaign to end the year

We have received 1001€ donations from 9 donors so far! Thank you to everyone who has donated. We are targeting our first goal : 1000€ to finance streaming solutions.

Welcome to our end of the year fundraiser. For changing French politics and making Europe a geopolitical actor, we must have the means to grow and professionalize Volt France. Throughout the coming weeks we will ask for your support and inform you about our work in the past year as well as our objectives for 2023 and 2024. Our articles alternate with testimonials for a more European perspective in French politics - the first of which was provided by our European politician from Germany,, Damian Boeselager. 

If you have not donated yet or want to donate again, you can do so on website (cheques/transfer) or direclty on our payment portal.

Thank you for your support!

The challenges of adopting European legislation on a national level

Volt Europa - Damian Boeselager

Damian Boeselager

Damian Boeselager, MEP Volt Germany

We have come a long way since we started building the first pan-European political party aiming to fix the EU.  Still, there is a lot more to be done on all political levels, be they local, regional, national or European. We need a more European approach across all of them.

Case in point: Transnational lists

On May 3rd, the European Parliament voted to reform the way we vote for the European Parliament i.e. the European election rules . The reform is necessary, because we have not fundamentally changed the way we vote in Europe since 1979 and because instead of one election, there are 27 national elections for the European Parliament. To give some examples:

  • Italy has one of the strictest laws requiring parties that are not in an alliance to collect 150.000 signatures across 20 regions with signatures having to be made in a consulate during business hours to be electable.
  • France has a 5% threshold and requires parties to purchase up to 40 million official bulletins and flyers to participate in a national election. This costs up to €800.000. 
  • In Austria 16-year olds can vote. In Romania only 23-year olds can be candidates. In Belgium and Ireland, you have to be 21, while in Germany and France you can already become a politician at the age of 18. 
  • There is postal voting and no threshold in Germany. There is internet voting in Estonia. But as a Greek or Irish citizen, you still have to fly back home to Ireland or Greece to be able to vote. 
  • Trust me, there are maaaaaany more of these differences.

Instead of having a patchwork of 27 election rules, we should have more common European  electoral standards. This is why the European Parliament voted for a reform to introduce common rules across the continent. These include a voting age of 16, common democratic standards for the right to stand in EU elections, a uniform election date on May 9th (Europe day), and a second vote for European Constituency that will elect 28 deputies using pan-European lists on top of the 27 national lists. I’m sure you think two years would be enough time to put this reform into place for 2024? Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The work for more Europe on the ground

For the last months, I’ve been traveling all across Europe to meet national parliamentarians and Ministers from Lithuania to Portugal. I wanted to engage with the decision-makers that hold the pen over these new ambitious rules. The goal of course was to convince them to support a swift adoption of the electoral reform ahead of the 2024 elections. Convincing 27 member states to implement European legislation requires an enormous amount of effort. Europe is often a sideshow when it actually should be a factor across all levels of national policies. Often, governments have no vision for Europe at all and are just focused on their own belly buttons. Instead, Europe should be a source of ideas and best practices of what works well elsewhere. And a means of cooperation and of advancing on essential topics that affect all of our lives. We need more Europe on the ground to make this happen.

The need to support pro-european movements (hint: like Volt France)

We could greatly improve this process if national policies would think and act more in sync with European policy-making. We need a team effort between European and national parliaments instead of treating them like separate affairs. To get there, we need more European parties working on the national level. In France, this means these parties and movements need your support to establish themselves and make their ideas known.

I therefore want to ask you to support our French Volt chapter by donating to their fundraiser. Whether it Is 5€ or 500€, your donation will make a difference in the short and long term to help establish the kind of European perspective that we need in French politics to advance our European project. 

Thank you for your support.

Damian Boeselager, MEP Volt Germany

(mis à jour le 18. novembre 2022, 10:39 CEST) -