spaceu2019 final report

Abstract

In occasion of the European Parliament elections of 2019, the EUI in partnership with StatLab launched project Spaceu2019, a two-fold online tool specifically tailored for mobile EU citizens voting either in their country of citizenship or residence. The University of Luzern in Switzerland contributed to the tool implementation. The first pillar consists of an interactive database, informing users on their electoral rights and allowing them to compare the conditions and requirements for participating in the political process of their country of residence or citizenship. The second pillar is euandi2019, a Voting Advice Application (VAA) helping citizen find the political party that best matches their policy preferences. The main objective was to create a more aware European-wide, politically active citizenry, therefore making the EP elections more relevant and transnational. This also may have helped getting citizens out to vote, given that EP elections are traditionally prone to particularly low levels of turnout. The main target group were EU mobile citizens as well as those with a dual citizenship, but also European citizens at large as this device is open to all and gives useful information on how to vote, and which parties are the best match, to static citizens as well. The project received funding by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020), Grant Agreement number 785683. None of this funding was transferred to Switzerland. The University of Luzern instead contributed through the Swiss National Science Foundation grant for project “Towards transnational voting in/for Europe”. This report provides information on the implementation and usage figures for both online tools.