Official launch of EUdebate2009.eu the first citizen website in 6 languages entirely dedicated to the European elections was made yesterday in the very heart of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. To give you an idea we were just a few steps away from the hemicycle where President Sarkozy gave his closing speech for the end of French Presidency. Isn’t that the best place to tell MEP’s that EUdebate2009.eu will definitely matter for the next European elections!

Getting back to the event, we had the pleasure of welcoming two important figures and long time supporters of cafebabel.com: Margot Wallström – vice-president of the European commission – and Alain Lamassoure – French MEP PPE.

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Margot Wallström for eudebate2009.eu launch. Credits European Parliament

First Margot Wallström (see picture credits European parliament) had very kind words: ‘I congratulate you for the important work you are doing. I think it is a solid work and that you have made a difference already and I give EUdebate2009 my full support’.

Well thank you Margot, I’m sure all Babelians really appreciate it! ;)

Then she went about EUdebate2009 saying that ‘it is one of the most important places on the internet where we can create debate and controversy. This is exactly what we need!’

Indeed one of EUdebate2009.eu’s objectives is to be the room for a true and open European debate for 2009 EP elections. As Fernando Navarro underlined it, ‘we want to create controversy and debate for these elections. This is what is dramatically lacking in European political culture’.

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Alain Lamassoure (right) and Alain Barrau (left). Credits European Parliament

Alain Lamassoure (see picture, credits European parliament), a prominent French MEP, went on saying that the role of a site like EUdebate2009.eu should be ‘the place where parties should elaborate their political programs on the basis of the contributions initiated by the citizens’. Lamassoure clearly supported our vision of breaking down national borders and politics and addressing issues at a European level. ‘This is incredible that we know more about US politics in the media than about German politics, Lamassoure said. We need to know more about each other’s political life’.

In a sense he’s totally right. This is why EUdebate2009.eu will focus on addressing the big issues at stake for the European elections. For this, we shot a series of videos all around Europe, gathering the opinion of European citizens on issues such as immigration,education or climate change for exemple. You can check videos here : http://www.eudebate2009.eu/eng/video/

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EUdebate2009.eu launch event. Credits European Parliament.

NOW, SO WHAT?

But as Ole Skambraks mentioned it, the most important thing for EUdebate2009.eu is… YOU! ‘We need YOU the citizens, you the MEPs, you the NGOs and opinion leaders to contribute, to comment, to react, to express your views, to agree, to disagree!’

For doing that nothing’s more simple than starting commenting all articles (check out our new comment system, it works just great!), writing an open tribune (we call it Expresso) or opening a blog (for this just send your blog proposal to Ole by email).

All information about how to participate are on the site!

That was to give you some feedback about the launch event in European parliament in Strasbourg!

And if you want to see more pictures, check out the facebook page dedicated to EUdebate2009.eu! It’s here

eudebate launch_4 EUdebate2009.eu launch event. Credits European Parliament.

Your cafebabel.com team