The cache is at the posted coordinates but you need to complete a challenge to log a find
* This is inspired by the very popular Electoral College challenge *
How do you run the second largest democracy in the world while simultaneously integrating 27 separate countries into a single customs and trade union? Well, it’s not easy that’s for sure! But if you want to become the President of the European Commission you are going to have to win over the MEPs that represent the diverse European political landscape.
As of time of writing (2023) there are 27 countries in the European Union and are represented by 705 Members of the European Parliament (MEP). In order to become president you will need to get at least half of them on your side!
Well, how can you do that? Campaigning of course! You will need to take a journey across Europe to pull it off.
In the table below, you will find the current makeup of the European Parliament as of 2023. It is allocated mostly by population but weighted so that small countries have representation.
|
Country
|
MEPs
|
Country
|
MEPs
|
Country
|
MEPs
|
|
🇦🇹 Austria
|
19
|
🇫🇷 France
|
79
|
🇲🇹 Malta
|
6
|
|
🇧🇪 Belgium
|
21
|
🇩🇪 Germany
|
96
|
🇳🇱 Netherlands
|
29
|
|
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
|
17
|
🇬🇷 Greece
|
21
|
🇵🇱 Poland
|
52
|
|
🇭🇷 Croatia
|
12
|
🇭🇺 Hungary
|
21
|
🇵🇹 Portugal
|
21
|
|
🇨🇾 Cyprus
|
6
|
🇮🇪 Ireland
|
13
|
🇷🇴 Romania
|
33
|
|
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
|
21
|
🇮🇹 Italy
|
76
|
🇸🇰 Slovakia
|
14
|
|
🇩🇰 Denmark
|
14
|
🇱🇻 Latvia
|
8
|
🇸🇮 Slovenia
|
8
|
|
🇪🇪 Estonia
|
7
|
🇱🇹 Lithuania
|
11
|
🇪🇸 Spain
|
59
|
|
🇫🇮 Finland
|
14
|
🇱🇺 Luxembourg
|
6
|
🇸🇪 Sweden
|
21
|
* Disclaimer: For ease of challenge creation, I have glossed over a lot of political details. Including the fact that Europe uses a Proportional Representation method and instead of a “winner-take-all” electoral college that i'm using for the purpose of this challenge.
The Challenge Requirements
Using the provided table, complete the challenge below and become EU President
- Find a geocache in an EU country to claim victory (All cache types accepted)
- Winning an EU country gives you all the MEPs in that country
- You can claim this cache as a find only after you reach at least 353 MEP votes
Feel free to sign the logbook before you qualify for the challenge, but make sure you post it as a note only. You need to win the election before you can claim the find! I will delete find logs that do not complete the challenge.
Examples of how the challenge works
Currently I have finds in 15 EU countries: Ireland (13), Germany (96), Czech Republic (21), Austria (19), Italy (76), Greece (21), Spain (59), Luxembourg (6), Poland (52), Denmark (14), Sweden (21), Slovakia (14), Bulgaria (17), France (79) and Hungary (21) for a current grand total of 529 MEPs.
It is possible to complete this challenge with only 5 countries. A single find in Germany (96), France (79), Italy (76), Spain (59) and Poland (52) would get you a total of 362 MEP votes, confirming your victory. But try to explore even more than just the big 5! My hope is this challenge will encourage people to explore smaller European countries too.
