After a long work the foundation of the Pirate Party Europe entered one of it's final stages. The ceremony of signing the statutes and manifesto of the Pirate Party Europe took place on 4th September in Luxembourg City (Abayé de Neumünster) and it was part of the Pirate Party Europe Conference. 

A day earlier me and Mattias arrived to Luxembourg to meet some of the Pirates, who decided to go to the event with us. Since the conference took place in Luxembourg, it is not surprising to see that most of the visitors came mostly from Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France or Switzerland. There were also delegations from more far-away countries, like Spain, Russia etc. The conference began with a nice morning workshop, which was then followed by voting of amendments and possible changes in the manifesto.

In order to avoid prolonging the whole conference, the voting section was decided to be simple and strict. First of all the changes made since the Warsaw conference in July were presented and then voting begun. Most of the amendments were of cosmetic nature; some of the Pirates from Italy proposed to change the name of the title of the leading person of PP EU, due to translation reasons. The voting section was perfectly organized so the whole process did not take very long (abouth half an hour). The conclusions were clear. After the voting session Amelia and Joni (our new intern, a photographer) arrived for the signing ceremony. 

The documents were signed by the Pirates of Belgium, Catalonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland. Two representatives signed the documents on behalf of the Croatian and Finnish pirate parties, that had no . It should be also mentioned that the representative from Young Pirates was also present. The decision to sign the statutes and manifesto were regarded as historical ones, and as those that can put an end to the long negotiations and as an answer to the question "What the European Pirate Party would look like". As of now, PP EU has its basic documents and position in the European pirate movement that is clearly defined. The fact, that a member of European Parliament was present at the signing event is one those that can confirm this. 

When the event ended, local Pirates continued in the election campaign in Luxembourg. As I've mentioned earlier, the Luxembourg Prime minister decided to resign due to a wiretapping scandal, that took place in Luxembourg in the first half of 2013.

This event, that is a final stage before the official foundation of Pirate Party Europe got already be mentioned in local media. There is a note in Luxemburg ones, and the results of the campaign are now known as far as in Finland. And we shouldn't also forget about the Pirate Times.