Hey all my fellow EU citizens – you are not forgetting to vote for the Parliament, right? I voted at the Swedish embassy in the House of Sweden in Washington before I left for South East Europe. (I voted for the Greens in this election too, though I did consider voting the Pirate Party, and not for free downloads but for the question of who should control the internet.) If you think that the EU Parliament has too little influence to be bothered to vote, change will not come by itself – you have to demand it and voting is a good start. Develop lesson no 1: Institutions can only be strengthened in a sustainable manner through popular support. And if this is not enough for you to go to the polls, think of all the countries that I work in, where the one great objective is to join the EU. In three meetings out of four that I have had this week, people have expressed their hope of a future EU membership coming sooner rather than later. You owe it to them!