Europese Liberalen verwachten flinke winst tijdens komende verkiezingen EP (en)

EUOBSERVER / AMSTERDAM - The Liberals expect to increase their showing in the European Parliament by around 20 seats in next year's elections in June.

Graham Watson, leader of the Liberals in the Parliament said on Friday (14 November) that he hoped the number of seats would be "well over 70".

Currently, the Liberals have 53 seats in the Parliament as well as 13 observers from the future EU member states.

Mr Watson said that on the basis of current seats and opinion polls there are "grounds for numbers going up".

However, the party, which is the third largest in the European Parliament, is aware of the difficulties facing them.

Reaching the hearts of the citizens

Speaking at the Liberal Party Congress in Amsterdam, Werner Hoyer, the ELDR Party President, said the message from the Congress was "Europe must finally reach the hearts of its citizens".

In the last European elections, in countries where there is no compulsory voting, an average of 39.4% bothered to cast their vote.

The figure was as low as 35% in Sweden and the UK.

European Parliament President Pat Cox said it was a "whole conflation of political circumstances" that led to the poor showing in 1999.

He added that the European elections will be unique in terms of the "Europeanness" of the circumstances - with enlargement, the EU Constitution, Europe's response to Iraq and the attempts to turn Europe into a dynamic world economy with the Lisbon agenda.

The next Party Congress is expected to be held just before final countdown to the elections, either at the end of April or the beginning of May 2004.