We are committed to making the official MySpace profile of the European Parliament a great place to meet and interact with other people from around the world. Our aim is to ensure a positive experience for all of our users.

Of course, MySpace’s legal Terms of Use are formulated in a crystal-clear manner and they clearly regulate what MySpace users can and cannot do regardless of whether they are registered or not. Nonetheless, we think it would make sense to briefly describe in simple terms what things and behaviour we find desirable here so that this profile can really be made into a great place.

Another word about us: we are thoroughly aware that the EU is a major topic which can trigger a lot of different opinions, perspectives and emotions.

We can deal with criticism and think that, when constructive, it plays an extremely important role in democratic processes. Yet the fact of the matter is that we’re not actually “the EU”—we represent the MySpace profile of the European Parliament set up for the 2009 European election campaign. A young web team made up of members from different European countries runs this profile. What we want is for everybody to take advantage of the opportunity of participating in the political process by discussing things with one another, forming their own opinions and expressing them here on this profile and at the ballot box.

With that said, here are some general guidelines to make this profile an interesting and great place:

1. Treat all users of this profile and users of its applications with respect. Naturally, this not only goes for other users, but also for us, the web team that does administrative work on the profile. The best way to get along well here is to show respect to everyone you speak with. This is not to say you can't argue, debate and discuss with one another, but that you do so with all the recognized conventions of personal and public interaction. When you create your own individual user name for certain applications on this profile, we'd appreciate if it's not vulgar or of a ridiculous nature.
2. No personal attacks. It should really be self-explanatory, yet experience has shown that we need to mention this: we have no interest in people who can’t turn a phrase without attacking someone. If you are simply unable to respect opinions that differ from your own, our profile is probably not the right place for you. Of course, we’re strictly committed to fundamental democratic ideals and these begin with us not tolerating any disrespectful, obscene, extremist or degrading comments here. We don't want to have to ban anyone from our profile, but will have to if they post anything of this sort. And this brings us up to the subject of moderation: we retain the right to freely edit, delete, moderate or ban for any reason if we feel that this will support the quality and positive goals of this profile. We will be as up front as possible if and when we have to do so and to inform people if their contribution has been edited or deleted, or if we can no longer consider somebody our “friend”.
3. Try to add quality. We will of course allow controversial discussions to be held, but please make sure that your submissions actually make a sensible contribution, are intelligibly formulated and suit the topic. We do not tolerate spam of any kind, nor any off-topic posts or multiple posts with the same or similar content, and we do not wish to see advertisements for any products or individual political parties here. We also will not accept any links posted to external web pages that do not correspond to the Terms of Use or this Code of Conduct. Please remember to always protect your personal information and let us know if any stranger has asked you for your personal data.
4. Be yourself. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. We do not accept any friendship requests from profiles we believe are unable to act in the interest of this Code of Conduct. This includes profiles to which the following applies:
   • The profile is a fake, i.e. the profile’s owner is not the person represented in the profile (e.g. profiles for cities, historical or fictive figures, animals, etc.).
   • The profile represents a company, brand or commercial enterprise.
   • The profile contains extremist, degrading or undemocratic statements and content.
   • The profile serves exclusively commercial purposes.
   • The profile represents views contrary to the fundamental rights and values of the European Union.

These are merely guidelines of what we generally expect, and obviously can't cover every possible scenario. Most people know what's acceptable and what isn't, so please use your common sense whilst in our common space! With these simple rules, we know we're going to achieve a great, intelligent discussion here without flame wars. Obviously, we’ll keep our eye on things for a while to come and, of course, we reserve the right to add more items to this Code of Conduct, modify it or interpret it more or less strictly.

In any case, we’re excited and we’re looking forward to your participation!

European Parliament Web Team, Brussels, 2 April 2009

We would like to give credits to some people who contributed to this profile and helped us in its creation:

Florian Reimann – for his picture in the “I use my vote” application