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Home » Research

Research, January 2009

Students: are they going to vote MEPs on 6th June 2009?

Slovak high schools cover 57,300 last-year students; and overall 115,200 students study daily in the 1st – 4th years at universities. They will have an opportunity to participate in Members of the European Parliament elections for the first time (6th June 2009). That is not an insignificant number of voters. Young citizens should be interested in who represents them in the European Parliament.

Department of Political Science FF UCM in Trnava conducted a sociological research (966 students in the age of 18 to 23). Data collection was secured by ASA-Bratislava at the end of January 2009. The research was supported by the SR Ministry of Education (youth department) and it creates a part of the Student European Parliament project (www.sepeu.sk), beginning in Trnava on 27th February 2009 with the support of the European Parliament.

The project has begun in the situation when out of the overall number of examined students - first voters to the EP:
1. 54,2 % knew that elections to the EP would take place in 2009
2. 45 % of the students trust the European institutions like the European Commission and the European Parliament
3. 40 % of the students knew the name of J. Figeľ, EC commissioner for the sphere of education, culture, youth and sport, representing Slovakia in the EU
4. 32% of the students are even informed that we will vote only 13, not 14 members to the EP in these elections. Students know some names of current EP members for SR.
5. 21,3 % stated that they would certainly participate in the elections (and 13 % stated that they would participate almost certainly).

It corresponds to the October 2008 Eurobarometer results showing that *34 % of Slovak citizens are interested in 2009 European elections and to the January 2009 Eurobarometer results showing that 25% of Slovak citizens would participate in the election.

Situation of 2009 is significantly different from the situation of 2004 when Slovakia ranked at the last place among the EU Member States with 17 % participation of citizens in the EP elections. Slovakia will definitely rank higher in these EP elections.

Prof.Ladislav Macháček, KP FF UCM TRNAVA