We had several New Years already this year. In the beginning of January we celebrated the New Year we all know, in mid-January it was the orthodox New Year, at the end of January it was the Chinese New Year and last week – the Iranian one. However, there is still one to come – the “new year” or new term for the parliament which 375 million could initiate in June.

Looking for new ways...

Ok, so we won’t eat grapes as they do it in Spain or purify the home as they do it in Scotland.  Perhaps we’ll have a video message from Barack Obama fresh on the footsteps of the message Hillary Clinton delivered in person a few weeks ago.

“New year” in the Parliament’s hemicycle Chamber will mean new resolutions and new faces to become familiar with.

Of course, for many MEPs it will be “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day; I will be with you again…” (U2). But for those new faces in the Parliament we need new faces to elect them — that’s why we are determined to conquer Facebook. And MySpace, Flickr and Youtube.

According to a study of the Nielsen Company members of such social networks and blogs have become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. Ok, we are not the only ones to realise their potential but we are the first public institution of this scale that does it.

But what should be the pre-New-Year’s message? As we see from implementing New Year’s resolutions and previous election campaigns formulating duties and obligations doesn’t really help. We have to encourage, make it easy and fun – be pals, find common language (their language) and show the choices.

The problem is, we are an institution and not politicians, so we have to be neutral and objective, otherwise we’ll be in trouble.

Besides, it’s not a new product we have to convince them of. No, it’s 30 years old! Many of those who spend a big part of their lives on Facebook and MySpace weren’t even born then. So it’s difficult. I guess I’ll have to ask my sister’s advice -  she is going to turn 18 next month.

On the other hand, if they buy it, it will themselves who will get the benefits. Let’s just hope that the political groups and parties enter the game too and make people’s decision easier with clearly formulated objectives. We can talk about choices as much as we want but it is up to the people to make the final choice!