The European Parliament elections are coming up in 2019, and the political parties and their youth organisations are starting to prepare for the campaigns. The list of electoral systems that are used in Europe is, however, as diverse as our union in every other aspect. And different systems might require different campaign tactics.

Therefore, there was a need to explore and compare different electoral systems (Closed list, SVT or preferential voting) used in the elections to the European Parliament, and how different systems affect campaigning. A relevant matter is what system would be best for the transnational (pan-European) lists that hopefully will be introduced in the future.

In order to explore them, 30 young liberals from all over Europe gathered in Zagreb for an ELF event, co-organized by LYMEC and the International Educational Center. This workshop included sessions with experts on the different topics, as well as contributions from the participants themselves. The participants had to write an essay in order to partake in the seminar. These essays were presented during the event and will later be part of a publication. The audience was diverse, including people from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Serbia, Ukraine and the UK.

The event kicked off on Friday 16 with a welcome speech by LYMEC bureau member, Kevin Tammearu and IEC President, Goran Neralić. Tammearu briefed the participants about the general theme of the event and the expected course. Some ground rules were put in place – in particular the use of #elfevent in social media. He then introduced Goran from the local organisers, who welcomed the participants to Zagreb and gave a brief background into his organisation. After the introduction by Goran and Kevin, it was time for the participants to introduce themselves and give a sample of their essay. They spoke about the topic of their essay, broke down some of their main points and later also provided an interesting example or two.