Supported by: Hanns Seidel Stiftung.

Project span: January – June 2019. 

Project team: Olga Gyárfášová, Grigorij Mesežnikov, Ján Bartoš, Alena Adamková, external experts. 

Objective: Elections to European Parliament 2019 are an opportunity that not only gives Slovak citizens the possibility to choose their representatives for an important European institution, but also an event that creates good opportunities to convey information on current developments in the EU, its future development and the challenges it faces. For Slovakia, these are the fourth EP elections, and country had so far the lowest voter turnout (only 13% in 2014). In order to develop full-fledged membership and increase the citizens‘ identification with the EU, it is important that more people take part in the 2019 elections and, in particular, that the interest among young people increases. The individual activities of the project also lead to this. 

The aim of the project is to combine different types of activities in order to reach out the citizens with a message of the importance of voting (and thereby to contribute to increasing voter participation), in particular research activities aimed at identifying the citizens' knowledge on the EU and its institutions and standards, on the depth of support for European values, on what motivates or discourages citizens from participating in EP elections. 

Project outputs: 

Representative public opinion survey (data collection, processing, analysis) with the final outcome – report on research findings. 

Press conference with the presentation of research report. 

Expert debate assessing the 2019 EP election results, their impact on the domestic political scene and the wider European context.