Volt Europa

Volt Europa
AbbreviationVolt
PresidentFrancesca Romana D'Antuono (IT),
co-president
Mels Klabbers (NL),
co-president
Founded29 March 2017; 7 years ago (2017-03-29)
HeadquartersBoulevard Bischoffsheim n° 39 boîte 4
1000 Brussels, Belgium
Youth wingVolt Violet
Ideology
Political positionCentre[5][6] to centre-left[7]
European Parliament groupGreens/EFA (since 2019)
Colours  Purple [8]
European Parliament
5 / 720
European Council
0 / 27
European Commission
0 / 27
European
Lower Houses
3 / 6,312
European
Upper Houses
2 / 1,498
Website
volteuropa.org Edit this at Wikidata

Volt Europa (frequently abbreviated as Volt) is a pro-European and European federalist transnational party. It operates as a pan-European umbrella for subsidiary parties sharing the same name and branding. Despite its organisation, Volt does not yet meet the requirements to register as a European political party.[9]

Volt aligns its political positions across Europe, presenting a common, pan-European manifesto. In the 2019 European Parliament elections, Volt ran in eight member states with a shared platform, emphasising solutions to supranational challenges, such as climate change, defense, energy policy, migration, economic inequality, terrorism, welfare, and the technological evolution of the labor market. The party advocates for a stronger, more integrated European Union, with the long-term goal of creating a federal Europe.[10] Additionally, Volt endorses the formation of a European army, joint European debt and taxes, nuclear energy including the construction of new nuclear power plants,[11][12] and stronger economic solidarity between the EU member states.

Initially using the slogan "Neither left nor right", Volt is now generally perceived as centrist[13][14] or center-left, with a core focus on evidence-based policy and best-practice sharing among EU countries and municipalities.[15] It campaigns on these principles in both local and national elections.

Founded in March 2017, Volt's first national subsidiary party was established in Hamburg, Germany, a year later. Since then, Volt has developed local teams in all EU member states, as well as in non-EU countries like Albania, Switzerland, Kosovo, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Volt subsidiaries are now registered political parties in many of these countries, most recently expanding to Cyprus and Romania.

  1. ^ Stagni, Federica (6 December 2018). "Time For Change: How Volt Wants To Fix Europe". Italics Magazine. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b Treffer, Peter (27 May 2019). "'Pan-European' Volt and DieM25 manage one MEP each". EU Observer. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  3. ^ Essler, Brett (7 November 2019). "Just Do It: How two SIPA alumni founded a new European political party—and won". School of International and Public Affairs. Columbia University. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  4. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  5. ^ Kaiser, Julia (12 June 2024). "Is pan-European party Volt the future of EU politics?". The Parliament Magazine. Boeselager was first elected to the EP in 2019 as Volt's first and – for a long time – only MEP. [...] The centrist party that he co-founded in 2017 was created to build "a counter-model to these right-wing populists who always say that we should go back to the nation state."
  6. ^ Schauenberg, Tim (13 June 2024). "Why are young German voters abandoning the Greens?". Deutsche Welle. The German Volt was the first national branch of the centrist pan-European party to be founded in 2017.
  7. ^ Forthomme, Claude (28 February 2019). "Volt Europa: An Electric Jolt to Wake Up Europe". Impakter. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Visual Identity". Volt Europa. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  9. ^ "About us". Volt Europa. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  10. ^ "Volt Luxembourg". Volt Luxembourg. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference otkr22 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference pol21 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ "Is pan-European party Volt the future of EU politics?". The Parliament Magazine. 12 June 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  14. ^ "Why are young German voters abandoning the Greens? – DW – 06/13/2024". dw.com. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  15. ^ "Jung und europäisch - Volt erobert die Stadtparlamente". Hessenschau (in German). 16 March 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.