Five years ago we launched a continental call for a European Renaissance. We were asking to start a process in which citizens, social partners, civil society and states could together write a courageous new page in our common history.
This May 9 officially opened the Conference on the future of Europe. We are happy about it: it is a decision that meets our expectations.
Strasbourg’s run-up: “Let’s change Europe”. But it will be a quarrel between governments
by our correspondent Claudio Tito
L’European Union is at a crossroads. She is faced with existential challenges that force her to rethink her model of society, the values that support it and her place in the world. The climate shock, the growing rivalry between powers, the digital revolution and the health emergency require political, institutional and financial responses of an unprecedented extent, far beyond national borders.
To address these challenges, we need to reform our decision-making and implementation methods. But the process will only be legitimate if the citizens of the Union are effectively and massively involved in it.
Unfortunately, the current organization of the Conference does not seem to allow this.
Sure, one digital platform it was created to involve as many people as possible. But who is aware of it? How many know about the decision of European leaders to launch a Conference on the Future of Europe?
Carrying out such a feat requires strong political will, substantial financial resources and the prior mobilization of civil society. In the absence of these prerequisites, consultations fail to involve a large number of citizens.
Not surprisingly, the European consultations organized up to now by governments and institutions have only mobilized a few tens of thousands of people.
Yet it is possible to do better.
For example, consultation WeEuropeans made by CIVICO Europe and Make.org ahead of the 2019 elections, has managed to involve nearly two million people in 27 countries and 24 languages. The resources invested as well as the central role given to citizens and civil society throughout the process guaranteed its highly successful outcome.
The same elements of success must be brought together today if we do not want the Conference on the Future of Europe to end in failure.
We therefore invite the Heads of State and Government to launch an appeal for civic mobilization in each of their countries without delay, truly involving citizens and representative forces of civil society and local authorities.
We invite them to promote citizen participation through the specific platform; but also to organize, on the basis of a harmonized methodology, deliberative civic consultations, carried out jointly with civil society organizations and the social partners.
It is a question of moving from an instrumental use of citizens to a collective and shared vision of the future of the Union.
We therefore invite the Heads of State and Government to really contribute to the success of this Conference, so that:
- Help build a common and shared vision of the Union we want, while we are still only at the beginning of the digital, ecological and demographic transitions that are transforming the world and the European reality like never before;
- At the end of a collective work, it is possible to converge on concrete changes in the political trajectory: whether it is a review of existing policies or new policies, in particular in the field of health, social affairs or culture, within the framework of the existing Treaty or a new treaty.
It is an immense responsibility that the European institutions and the states have assumed by launching the Conference on the Future of Europe. This responsibility now obliges them.
The time has come to entrust each of us with the definition of our common future.
On the initiative of the Co-Presidents of CIVICO Europa, Guillaume Klossa, former Director of the European Union of Broadcasting, e Francesca Ratti, former Deputy Secretary General of the European Parliament:
Lionel Baier (CH), Director;
Enrique Baron Crespo (ES), former President of the European Parliament;
Brando Benifei (IT), Member of the European Parliament, President of the Spinelli Group;
Gilbert Bourseul (FR), President of Topics;
Mercedes Bresso (IT), Economist, former President of the Committee of the Regions;
Marco Cappato (IT), President of EUmans;
Alessia Centoni (IT), President of the European Women Association;
Jasmina Cibic (SLO), Artist;
Daniel Cohn-Bendit (FR / DE), former President of the Greens group in the European Parliament;
Jože P. Damijan (SLO), Economist;
Tremeur Denigot (FR), Professor, member of CIVICO Europa;
Michele Fiorillo (IT), Philosopher, Coordinator of the CIVICO Europa network;
Virginia River (IT), Coordinator of EUmans;
Cynthia Fleury (FR), Philosopher;
Luca Jahier (IT), former President of the Economic and Social Committee;
Christophe Leclercq (FR), Founder of EURACTIV media network and the EURACTIV Foundation;
Jo Leinen (DE), former MEP, former President of the International European Movement;
Alexandra Mitsotakis (GR), Presidente del World Human Forum;
Jonathan Moskovic (BE), former Coordinator of G1000, Advisor for Democratic Innovation;
Leoluca Orlando (IT), Mayor of Palermo;
Stojan Fear (SLO), former Secretary of State for Culture;
Rosen Plevneliev (BG), former President of the Republic;
Magali Plovie (BE), President of the French-speaking Parliament of Brussels;
Janez Potocnik (SLO), former European Commissioner;
Sneska Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic (NL / RS), Secretary General of Europa Nostra;
Petre Roman (RO), former Prime Minister;
Yvan Sagnet (CM), Writer, Founder of the NoCap Association;
Fernando Savater (ES), Philosopher;
Roberto Saviano (IT), Writer;
Elly Schlein (IT), Vice President of the Emilia Romagna Region;
Daniela Schwarzer (DE), Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation;
Denis Simonneau (FR), President of EuropaNova;
Claus Haugaard Sørensen (DK), former Director General of the European Commission;
Farid Tabarki (NL), Founder of Studio Zeitgeist;
Álvaro Vasconcelos (PT), Founder of Forum Demos, former Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies;
Cédric Villani (FR), Mathematician, Fields Medal, Deputy;
Pietro Vimont (FR / IT), Founding member of CIVICO Europa;
Luca Visentini (IT), Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation;
Sasha Waltz e Jochen Sandig (DE), respectively Choreographer and Director of the Sasha Waltz Company;
Slavoj Žižek (SLO), Philosopher.
It is possible to join the appeal on the site: www.civico.eu
.