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Swedish Pirate Party Member To Be EU's Youngest MP

Posted by timothy on from the jumping-the-queue dept.

First time accepted submitter genjix writes "In a few weeks Amelia Andersdotter will be the second Pirate Party member to take a seat at the European Parliament in Brussels. The 24-year-old Swede was voted in more than two years ago, but due to bureaucratic quibbles her official appointment was delayed. TorrentFreak catches up with the soon-to-be youngest MEP to hear about her plans and expectations."

5 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Only 24? by smi.james.th · · Score: 4, Interesting

    24 years old is very young to be in any parliament... That's how old I am!

    I wish her luck. Hopefully the concept can spread around the world, the current copyright situation is quite crazy as it stands.

    --
    One thing I know, and that is that I am ignorant...
  2. Naysayers say nay by Rogerborg · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Quick precis for those who don't know: MEPs are essentially non-entities. All EU legislation is created by the Commission, made up of unelected political appointees from Member States. Since they don't know anything about the issues that they actually legislate, they farm out the task of actually writing laws to expert consultants - read, lobbyists.

    After six or seven rounds of rubberstamping, the new Directive is put before the actual "Parliament", where MEPs can vote yea or nea, or just not show up in the hope that it will pass and they can plead ignorant neutrality. If they vote nea, it goes through the committee system a few more times so that some of the more deliberately egregious clauses can be elided. Honour satisfied, the Directive is duly passed in the form that the lobbyist really wanted, and Member States can begin the process of (mis)implementing it, or in the case of anyone South or East of Belgium, shrugging their shoulders and simply ignoring it.

    And that's how democracy works.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  3. Re:Wow - nice pirot by migla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Aye!

    Then, in case one needs to know about male geeks being rude (maybe without wanting to, actually), read this:

    http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html

    That's a pretty long read, though. Maybe just watch "How to not be a Dick", by Matthew Garreth at Lugradio live 2008:

    http://blip.tv/flamekebab/lrluk-2008-the-gong-a-thong-lightbulb-talk-extravaganza-matthew-garrett-1109597

    --
    Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
  4. be positive! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think it is much more important, that if she starts with 24 and is good and clever enough could be someone - if she grows up - who has a great impact on the european politic, just like the other young politicians, MEPs, MPs, PP members and so on - which I would really welcome

  5. Re:Savviness by Lennie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought this was also really interresting to see from a European commissioner:

    http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/communication-breakdown-10000030/copyright-isnt-working-says-european-commission-10024835/
    http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/20/0511214/copyright-isnt-working-says-eu-technology-chief-neelie-kroes

    --
    New things are always on the horizon