Elections for Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will take place across Europe from 4-7 June 2009, and many national parliaments will also be holding elections this year. 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be elected.

Millions of cancer patients will be using their votes to reduce the cancer burden in our countries where 1 in 3 of our citizens will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 4 will die. Many thousands of these deaths every week are unnecessary and avoidable.

At election times candidates are looking for a platform and a profile with their voters. Being a coalition of more than 270 cancer patient organisations, the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) would now like to encourage its member organizations to ask two vital questions to their would-be MEPs:

• if an MEP is returned to European Parliament, will she/he join MEPs Against Cancer (MAC)?
• will the MEP endorse the Cancer Patient Manifesto proposed by ECPC?

You have the power to vote!

The ECPC Toolbox for the European Parliament Elections 2009

ECPC has provided a toolbox which intends to help its members to prepare a campaign.

The toolbox contains

• the "ECPC Guide to the 2009 European Parliament elections",
  
• 2 template letters and the "ECPC Manifesto against Cancer" to send to MEP candidates standing in the elections. The documents are designed to draw attention to the needs of cancer patients and to encourage those candidates who are successful, to champion cancer patient's interests.
  
• A draft press release and a draft newsflash which some may wish to translate and personalize for a national campaign.

Please also see our press release.

Activities report

Some examples what was done using the ECPC election toolkit:

• The English election letters were sent to all the current UK MEPs
• The Dutch letter, together with the English Manifesto, was sent to representatives of all political parties in The Netherlands
• In Germany, the German letter and German ECPC Cancer Manifesto was co-signed by 7 other cancer patient groups (including lung, leukemia, breast, kidney, GIST, myeloma groups) and sent to 363 German MEP candidates. Some of the letters have been handed to the candidates in person
• Further activities with translated letters to candidates are anticipated for Poland and Greece.
  

We would love to hear about all your activities in the EU elections! Please let us know what you are planning to do!

Let's show that cancer patients are speaking with one voice across Europe, to make sure the fight against cancer will remain high on the EU's and your country’s agenda after the elections!