Between 4 June and 7 June 2009, each member state of the European Union will hold elections to select their Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). This election is critical to the interests of people all across Europe, and voting in an educated and thoughtful way is one of the most important actions that you can take this year.

That is why the Health and Environmental Alliance has developed a questionnaire that citizens concerned about environmental and health issues can use to hold their representatives responsible to their electors. Entitled " 8 wishes for putting people’s health and environment first: Towards healthier lives, cleaner environment in 2014 ", the questionnaire asks candidates to make pledges on a variety of important issues impacting our immediate and long term future, such as chemicals, climate change, air quality and children’s health. These issues will be part of the EU political and legislative debate in the next term.

We hope to collect as many pledges as possible in the coming two months and develop a list of environment and health friendly MEPs ahead of the elections.

 Download the questionnaire and let us know if you decide to use it with your candidate MEPs

Why your vote is important

The European Parliament is the only directly elected body of the European Union, and thus is situated to best represent the democratic voice of the people. The EP is currently made up of 785 members distributed proportionally across the member states. Members of Parliament hold their seat for a term of five years; this means that those MEPs elected this summer will stay in office until at least 2014. Issues that will be discussed during this term include agriculture reform, alternative energy sources, biodiversity and the implementation of the European Union chemical registration policy known as REACH. A second EU Environment and Health Action Plan will also be developed under this new Parliament.

One of the competences in which the EU has the most say is environmental policies. Many of the global warming, chemical safety and consumer protection laws that you see in use every day in your country were enacted at the European level, and directly affect your health. Without strong support from a base of voters who care about these issues, it will be hard to continue to enact, and enforce this important legislation. Politicians are ultimately answerable to their constituents, and so it becomes important to cast your vote in the election. By electing an MEP who is sympathetic to the issues you find most important, such as environmental health, you help bring Europe closer together and towards better policy.

HEAL and Green 10 activities

The Green10, a network of the ten largest environmental NGOs in Europe, has also released a manifesto for the elections which HEAL contributed to. This can be found online at the G10 website. In addition you will be able to find more information in the coming months on the websites of the European political groups and the European parliament, all of which you can finds links to at http://www.europarl.europa.eu.