Chancelor Angela Merkel has achieved a remarkable 41.5% of the vote (see breakdown below). The next weeks in Berlin are going to turn into a period of gamesmanship as Mrs. Merkel tries to form a stable governing coalition. Her only options are the Greens and the Social Democrats. Germans would be happy with a so-called 'grand coalition' with the Social Democrats because it would unite the country's two largest political parties. Such a government would also have a majority in the upper house of parliament- the Bundesrat offering support for Mrs.Merkel throughout the legislature.

The ranking of the EU richest countries is based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) database of April 2013. The ranking is done according to GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita.

It cannot be said too many times that having an effective organization is crucial to successful public policy advocacy. Surprisingly many organizations in the EU Member States don’t have sufficient knowledge on how to increase the level of their public policy advocacy engagement.

What follows are solutions for increasing the level of public policy advocacy engagement and the benefits that can accrue in doing so.

Solutions

What follows is an Extract from a document published by the European Council on Foreign Relations titled " The German Election: What Europe expects and what Germany will not do.

The Euro crisis has failed to explode in the last three years, in spite of repeated predictions that it would. Many commentators (and politicians) now rejoice that the problem is solved. While a few of the countries have made steps toward recovery, there are still several that haven't, and, by and large, those that haven't are larger than those that have.

As always with European crises, the summer was a quiet period as everyone did put aside these dire economic issues and went on holiday. But there will be more fireworks after German elections, when tough decisions will be made.

Beside the top 6 EU Member States (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Poland) whose combined population represents 355.79 million or 70% of the total EU population, the 30% remaining is comprised of 22 Member States that  have fewer votes in the Council (Romania, Netherlands, Greece, Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Slovakia, Finland, Ireland, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta).

The Lisbon treaty has expanded the use of qualified majority voting (QMV) in the Council of Ministers by having it replace unanimity as the standard voting procedure in almost every policy area. Moreover, taking effect in 2014, the definition of a qualified majority will change:

Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people” was written in 1936 and published in 1937- 76 years ago. It should be the first book that any aspiring public policy advocate, any politician, any leader should read and apply in his/her daily work. Dale Carnegie reminds us that the use of the principles, techniques, rules can be made habitual only by a constant and vigorous application of review and application. There is no one way. The principles, the techniques, the rules must be applied at every opportunity. If you don’t you will forget them quickly.

Prior to 1979, several prominent political leaders envisioned that direct elections to the European Parliament would transform the EU into a ‘genuinely democratic polity’. Amongst them, former European Commission President Walter Hallstein said direct elections would force those entitled to vote to engage in the questions and policy alternatives on which the European Parliament would have to decide.

The official run-up to the 2014 European elections started on 10 September 2013, when the European Parliament launched its awareness and information campaign. This campaign will continue beyond the elections themselves, until the newly-elected Parliament in turn elects the next European Commission President.

The campaign will have four phases.

Phase one starts now, with the presentation of the baseline ACT.REACT.IMPACT. This phase aims to explain the European Parliament’s new powers and their implications for people living in the EU.