Don't draw conclusions too quickly!

There are many considerations a Member of European Parliament (MEP) makes before he or she votes in the European Parliament (EP). Sometimes MEPs vote tactically and 'sacrifice' a certain vote in order to win another, one of greater importance to them. Also, MEPs may vote against an environmentally friendly piece of legislation because they think it should have been even stricter.
Therefore, a member with a for a certain topic may not necessarily have an unfriendly attitude towards environmental issues. Friends of the Earth Europe and its partner organisations have tried carefully to avoid this kind of misunderstanding, yet do not guarantee that an individual MEP's voting record directly reflects that individual's attitude towards the environment.
It should also be noted that in order to provide European voters with meaningful information, we based our information on behaviour on a selection of controversial votes in which the European Parliament was split. Votes in which the entire parliament voted in favour of the environment might therefore be underrepresented. In general, the European Parliament has often played a constructive role in strengthening environmental legislation.
This gives the voter all the more reason for voting in the upcoming election! A high turn-out will strengthen the authority of the European Parliament in leading decision making in Europe.
So, besides looking at individual MEPs, we suggest voters to also consider the overall voting results of national political parties, EU political groups in the EP, and Member States.
In addition, MEPs are invited to comment on their voting records. Comments will be put on the webpage without editing. We suggest that EU Vote Watch visitors look at these comments before drawing conclusions.

Help topics and Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.)

* How to use EU Vote Watch

	1)	Go to the top of the page; there is a pull-down menu with the text 'select search method'
	2)	Select a search method. You can search by country, by EU Group (most national political parties affiliate to a political group on a European level, which is called an EU Group), or by a political party in a country
	3)	Select the country or EU Group you want to search for
	4)	If searching for a national political party, first select a country and then select a political party from that country

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* What do the smileys mean?
See also 'What the results mean' on the EU Vote Watch homepage.
= the vote was environmentally friendly
= the vote was environmentally unfriendly
= the vote was an abstention (blank vote)
= the person was not present for the vote
= the person was not a Member of European Parliament during this vote

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* How were the ten environmental topics chosen?
The choice was based on the 'Environmental Manifesto for the European Elections 2004' of the Green-8 (the 8 leading environmental NGO networks in Europe) and on a survey of the most important environmental subjects NGOs are working on. A list of key environmental topics was put together, and for each of the topics we searched for relevant decisions of the European Parliament. Then we searched for specific votes within these decisions, which were recorded electronically by name (roll-call vote). Only decisions which are relevant, and where the vote for or against is most representative for a positive or negative attitude towards the environment were chosen.

* Where can I find more information on the environmental decisions?
Click on the topics at the top of each table for more information and links to other websites.

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* What is an MEP?
MEP is the abbreviation for 'Member of European Parliament'.

* Why and how can I send e-mails to Members of European Parliament (MEPs)?
Parliamentarians are the peoples' representatives in politics. MEPs represent all European peoples, therefore also representing your opinion. Through EU Vote Watch you can send MEPs e-mails to tell them your opinion on the environment, or ask them questions, or to request them to leave comments on their own voting behaviour regarding the eleven environmental decisions.
How to do this? When searching EU Vote Watch by country, EU group or national political party, a list with voting records is shown. For each MEP, a link is shown, which you can click to go the the MEPs individual page. Searching by individual MEP will bring you to the same page, where you find the MEPs' comments to their own voting records. No comments yet? Click 'e-mail me!' to automatically send an e-mail to this person's address. No link? Then unfortunately their e-mail address is unknown.

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* What is Friends of the Earth Europe?
Friends of the Earth is an international network of environmental organisations. Almost every country has an environmental organisation which is a member of Friends of the Earth. In Brussels, Friends of the Earth has an office co-ordinating and supporting all European groups. This office also serves as the Friends of the Earth representation to the European institutions. Would you like to know more? Click here for the Friends of the Earth Europe homepage, and here for the Friends of the Earth international website.
Friends of the Earth Europe cooperates with several other environmental organisations throughout Europe. EU Vote Watch is supported by four large partner-organisations. To learn more about them, click their logo in the bottom-left of the EU Vote Watch homepage.

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* What is the EP?
EP is the abbreviation for 'European Parliament'.

* How does the European Parliament work?
Any parliament consists of several political parties. In the European Parliament (EP) however, the term 'EU group' is used instead. EU groups are formed by national political parties together with like-minded politcal parties from other Member States. EU groups do not make coalitions like this is done in national parliament, because there is no government to be formed from the EP.
The EP works with different procedures, depending on the topic discussed. In general, the EP can give its opinion or co-decide on EU legislation. Draft legislation comes from the European Commission and is taken care of in the EP by a rapporteur, who guides the draft through all EP-procedures. The rapporteur writes a report on the draft in which he/she and others propose amendments. The EP votes on this report in a plenary session. Depending on the procedure followed there are either one, two or three of these 'readings'. More detailed information is available on the EP homepage.

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* What power does the European Parliament have?
That depends on the topic. In most cases, the EP co-decides on legislation, and its voice is just as important as that of the European Council (made up of Ministers of all Member States). On some topics, such as agriculture and nuclear legislation, the EP unfortunately has a lot less power. More detailed information is available on the EP homepage.

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* What is an EU group?
See 'How does the European Parliament work?'

* I don't see my political party in the European Parliament. How is that possible?
Not all political parties represented in a national parliament are automatically represented in the EP. National parliaments and European parliament are elected independently. See also 'How does the European Parliament work?'. Are you from one of the European Union's ten new Member States? Then your country was not represented in the EP so far, therefore they have no voting records. More information on the ten new Member States will be added to EU Vote Watch at the beginning of May.

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* Where can I find more information on the European Parliament?
On the European Parliament's homepage.

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* I am an MEP. Where can I leave my comments?
Click the 'EP Members Only' button in the left bar of the screen and follow the instructions that pop up.

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