the project

Why Vote Match?

June 2008 the Institute for Political Participation (IPP) in the Netherlands and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) in Germany, established with around 15 participants from other EU-countries the network “Vote Match Europe” at the NECE-conference in Strassbourg. When in November 2008 it became clear that no European funding for the project was available, the decision was made to try and realize a ‘pan-European’ VoteMatch, like in 2004, where the result of the questioning leads to the European groups in the European Parliament. CafeBabel, the Paris based multilingual current affairs online magazine, did express the wish to participate in the project and to have the pan European Vote Match installed in six different languages in their website EUDebate2009.eu.
In a workshop in Cologne, organised under the NECE-flag by the bpb, end of March 2009, some twenty participants from the Vote Match network were discussing the theses that should be taken in the Vote Match Europe.
Next to this 12 different ‘national’ Vote Matches using the method of the Dutch original StemWijzer were developed in the following countries: Austria (Wahlkabine), Bulgaria (Glasovoditel), Czech Republic (Kohovolit CZ), Germany (Wahl-O-Mat), Great Britain (Vote Match), Hungary (Te kitvalasztanal?), Ireland (Vote Match), Italy (Cabine Eletorale), Poland (Latarnik Wyborczy),), Romania (Testeaza-ti votul!), Slovakia (Kohovolit SK) and the Netherlands (StemWijzer).
The launch of the Vote Match Europe, organised by the bpb, took place on a special Parliamentary Evening in Brussels, 29th of April, where the tool was tested in public by members of the European Parliament.

Aim of VoteMatch

VoteMatch Europe 2009 is an educational tool. It has the potential to promote European citizenship, to better inform citizens about elections for the European Parliament (EP), teach voters about the programmatic differences between the contesting parties and to increase the voter turn out. By realizing Vote Match in all EU-member states not only a network between organizations in all participating EU-countries will be established, but also a platform will appear through which all users can get acquainted to the different opinions on all important European issues in the participating countries.