The last European Elections must have been degrading and frustrating for our politicians because of the high rate of abstention given. This must have made them self-criticize themselves and think about a way of getting the electorate’s hopes up again. It has been the highest rate of abstention given in the history of the European elections.

The following table shows the participation rate for each country (%):

The average participation rate in the 25 countries has been 45.30%, and if we only consider de 15 countries belonging to the former European Union, the rate would have been 49%. In this table, what specially attracts attention is that in the biggest country, and the one with more population, out of the ten new members of the European Union, Poland, has only had a 21% participation rate. It is clear that, excepting Malta, the new European citizens have not been motivated in their first elections. We could say that they have been Eurosceptical.

In the election campaign developed in Spain, the political parties have been more focused on their internal problems, and highlighting the other part’s errors, than on explaining the Community Institutions’ importance and their direct effects on all the citizens, on the millions of citizens belonging to the 25 countries forming the European Union. These deceiving results are meant to motivate us to state that our Group is not eurosceptical, that we are not eurosceptical and much less europassive. We are going to continue on fighting to defend our rights and our dignity as European citizens with full rights. We have worked and we will continue on working in order to integrate new associations coming from all the countries in The European Union in our Group, and make them see that if we fight together we will be able to reach our aims and make our rights be respected, in our countries and in Brussels, in the European Union.

I think it is appropriate to remember that the motto of the Congress held in Alicante in 1999: 'A society for all ages', the same way as the 'Alicante Bill', that was formally handed in to the UNESCO’s Spanish Commission so they made it reach their headquarters in Paris have point number eight transcribed 'Demanding a participation, as citizens with full voting rights, through the representatives that have been directly elected by them, in all those Public and Representative Agencies, affecting directly the Elderly' problems, specially recalling on the Financial Institutions and the Credit companies'.

We are not eurosceptical nor europassive. We are active Europeans and we demand that all our experience and the knowledge acquired during our long working life are useful for the social and political life in all the European scale and for all the citizens.

José Roberto López Martínez
President of the Group