On the occasion of the parliamentary, provincial and local elections held on May 11, 2008, the European Movement in Serbia launched a campaign to “Get out and vote: I choose EUROPE – I see the FUTURE” conceived to encourage citizens to participate in the elections.

In the period between the May 1 and 9, 2008, street events were organized in 20 cities in Serbia, where EminS’ activists distributed information leaflets with a simple and clear answer to the question “Why Europe?” A short, animated video was broadcast on national, regional and local TV stations. A variety of topics about the European Union were presented to citizens of Serbia on the website www.mojaevropa.rs. Two panel discussions were organized in Belgrade, where key speakers presented the latest results of a survey about citizens’ attitudes towards the EU and the European integration process and offered a clear answer to the question “Why Serbia needs European standards?”.

A Local European Charter was adopted – a document which defined ten key principles for effective, modern, European local government. EminS local councils offered this document to the holders of the electoral lists in their cities.

The partner organizations in this project were: Local Councils of the European Movement in Serbia in Zrenjanin, Cacak, Sombor, Pirot, Krusevac, Majdanpek, Leskovac, Lazarevac, Zajecar, Kragujevac, Valjevo, Nis, Cuprija, Novi Sad, Subotica, Novi Pazar and Sremska Mitrovica, and the Women’s government.

Project was supported by USAID through ISC and International Republican Institute.