European Union Elections

A European Union Elections voting center at Eretria, Greece.

Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and 18 observers were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history.
The majority of MEPs were elected on Sunday 7 June, but because of traditional polling days varying from country to country according to local custom, some countries held their elections in the three preceding days:

Thursday 4 June: United Kingdom and Netherlands.
Friday 5 June: Ireland and Czech Republic.
Saturday 6 June: Cyprus, France, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Slovakia, Czech Republic.Sunday 7 June: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden.

The EPP-ED group is credited with between 263 and 273 members of the European Parliament, against 155-165 MEPs for the PES, the European Parliament website indicated. In the outgoing 785-member European Parliament, EPP-ED had 284 MEPs to the PES's 215. The EPP remained by far the largest grouping in the 736-seat parliament. The Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) obtained between 78 and 84 seats, down from 103 in the previous legislature. The Greens / European Free Alliance group won 52-56 MEPs, up from 42 last time around. The Eurosceptic Independence-Democracy group, which previously had 24 members, lost seats and has now 15-19 MEPs, while the Union for Europe of the Nations group (UEN) also lost members and is down from 44 to 33-37 MEPs. Similarly, the Confederal Group of the European Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), is down from 44 to 33-37 MEPs.

Kevrekidis Photography at deviantART

©2009 Jordan Kevrekidis

Immigrant Workers in Greece

Immigration in Greece has emerged as one of the major social issues with serious political and economic repercussions. The largest group of immigrants residing in Greece comes from ex communist countries. There are more than 1 million immigrants in Greece (equivalent to 10% of the population) mostly from Albania, followed by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Iraq, Kurdistan, Philippines and many African counties. Wages in Greece for work in the black market are 3 to 6 times higher than standard wages in their home countries. Yet, they have to live their lives in the insecurity and the constant fear of being deported. Since Greece has declared that is not an immigration country, there is hardly any state infrastructure to help immigrants integrate in the Greek society.

Kevrekidis Photography at deviantART

©2009 Jordan Kevrekidis