Galaxy Europe - To Boldly Lead the EU Where No One Has Ever Gone Before!

The idea behind the Galaxy Europe campaign was that of promoting and getting to know young Members of the European Parliament coming from all the different European political groupings (yes ... the lovely colourful planets in the website represent the Liberals, Socialists, Christian Democrats and People’s Parties, Greens and the Non-attached). JEF saw “Galaxy Europe” as a unique opportunity for young people to be only one click away from the candidate that might be their choice for the next European Parliament elections, and thus to exercise their right to vote based on European issues, and not solely on national ones.

Hence it was a great satisfaction for us to see that more than twenty-five MEPs aged under 36 years agreed to participate in the Galaxy Europe contest with the common aim of sharing their political ideology and standpoint with young Europeans, and why not, to also win the prestigious award of being the “Best Young MEP of 2006”... In fact, throughout the whole campaign, voters around Europe had the opportunity to get to know five or six MEPs “contesting” each other every week, by reading their points of view on EU related issues and by having the opportunity of giving their comments online - simulated democracy at its best, culminating with a weekly vote of their favourite young MEP from the ones running.

The Galaxy Europe webpage had a record number of hits at 32,500, with 7500 of which going to Holger Krahmer, a young German MEP coming from the Liberal Grouping who was thus proclaimed the winner!

In addition to promoting the work of the MEPs among young Europeans, JEF-Europe also aimed to increase its visibility through this campaign in the European Parliament and to build a network of young MEPs that could collaborate with our organisation at a European and local level, with national sections. Although we could already foresee the existence of a constructive relationship between some young “galactic” MEPs and national sections, this project has served to demonstrate and prove yet again the relevance and the reliability of JEF as a partner in the European Youth Arena.

As a final word, I would like to thank all the people, national sections and organisations that all helped to make this project a success.