02942: New Convention on EU Future. Declaration by Democracy International
From:
<WDDM webmaster>
Date:
Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:23:53 -0700
Subject:
New Convention on EU Future. Declaration by Democracy International
Subject: New Convention on EU Future. Declaration by Democracy International
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:45:29 +0200
From: Cora Pfafferott, Democracy International
<pfafferott(at)democracy-international.org>
Reply-To: Democracy International <contact(at)democracy-international.org>
More Democracy and a democratic Convention for Europe
Declaration by the participants of DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL’s Summer Academy
in Burgas, Bulgaria, 12.-15.07.2012
From 12 -15 July 2012 activists, experts, researchers, journalists and
politicians from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Russia, Austria, Germany, France,
Great Britain, Hungary, Switzerland and Sweden met at the DEMOCRACY
INTERNATIONAL Summer Academy in Burgas, Bulgarai to discuss the development of
citizen participation and direct democracy in Europe. DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL
is a global coalition advocating and strengthening direct democracy at
transnational level.
The participants of the DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL Summer Academy declare:
“Democracy is the most important issue of our time as political questions like
climate change, the responsibility for resources and the environment, the state
and quality of civil rights and policies on economic, financial and social
issues depend on the quality of democracy and the question who takes the
decisions in the end.
Only a good democracy can guarantee good political decisions. A good democracy
requires sound and fair elections, a wide range of instruments for citizen
participation and consultation and, most importantly, the right for initiative
and referenda. Only where this right is provided properly citizens can speak
with politicians on the same level. Besides the right to vote the right to
initiative and referenda is the most important democratic instrument. It is the
expression of citizens’ sovereignty in a more differentiated, individualized
and complex world.
Today we see democracy in great danger.
Democracy is in danger in countries where governments sometimes do not work for
the common good, but for their own personal, political and sometimes even
economic interests. Democracy is in danger in countries like Hungary or
Romania, in which government is in the hands of persons or parties that do not
respect all existing democratic rules. Instead, the governing parties change
laws and the constitution with the aim of getting more say over judges, courts,
institutions and even the media.
We acknowledge that democracy needs a legislative remedy in Bulgaria where the
referendum decision made by an overwhelming number of voters is not accepted
due to even higher participation quorums.
Democracy is in danger in the European Union, where important decisions are
more and more taken by a small number of powerful politicians, without asking
the people and bypassing the only directly elected body of the EU, the European
Parliament.
And democracy is in danger in a world, where more and more political decisions
are taken on an international or transnational level while democratic
participation and control still lies within the nation states.
For all these reasons we need more democracy, citizen participation and direct
democracy in all national states, and also we need more democracy, citizen
participation and direct democracy on the international level.
Democracy International calls for the right to initiative and referenda in all
countries and on the local, regional, national or the transnational level. We
monitor Direct Democracy and work on concepts and criteria for modern forms of
direct democracy on all levels.
At the moment we face a strong discussion about a stronger political, fiscal
and economic European Union. The master plan is made by the four presidents of
the executive power institutions.
DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL strongly underlines that the future of Europe and
European democracy cannot be decided only by representatives of governments,
the central bank and other executive institutions. Only EU citizens can decide
on the future of the European Union. Therefore, we call for a European
Convention – as foreseen in Article 48 of the Treaty of the functioning of the
EU – and for a europeanwide referendum on the outcome of this convention and on
the future of the EU.
This convention should be elected by the people, have enough time for its work
and integrate civil society proposals. The European Union has to become a
Europe of the citizens – or the European Union will fail.
Gerald Häfner,
President of Democracy International
on behalf of the participants of the summer academy
-- Contact:
Cora Pfafferott, Democracy International
Friedrich-Ebert-Ufer 52
Koeln, 51143
Germany