Politicians of the world to unite in e-Parliament
By Lisbeth Kirk
The world has some 25,000 popularly-elected politicians in democratic parliaments and they are to unite in the new network "e-parliament" in an attempt to have their voices heard when global decisions concerning trade, environment, epidemics and armed conflicts are taken.
The idea is being promoted by a group of 13 politicians, led by the Swedish Christian Democrat MEP Anders Wijkman, reports Dagens Nyheter in Sweden.
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Vice-chairman of the group is the Indian MP Mani Shankar Aiyar. Mexican senator Silvia Hernandez, MP Dora Byamukama from Uganda and Cyd Ho, member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, Derek Wyatt MP, Labour, UK are also participating in the group which includes the Swedish liberal MEP, Cecilia Malmström.
At the moment, the group is canvassing the World Bank, the European Commission, governments and private foundations to raise the money needed to run the project on a larger scale. Some three million euro is needed.
Mr Wijkman sees the project as a first step towards something much bigger: "If we are to have a real democratic world, then we cannot just make do with the UN. In the long term one must imagine a world parliament of a kind", he said.