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News
April, 26 2011
One year to go
European Citizens' Initiative Summit 2011
With less than a year to go before the first European Citizens' Initiative can be registered and formally launched, experts, activists and observers will meet in the Austrian capital to update each other on the final countdown to a historic première. This is a unique opportuni-ty to learn more about the procedural, practical and infrastructural preparations for the very first direct-democratic tool at the transnational level in world history!
The 2011 European Citizens‟ Initiative Summit brings together the key stakeholders from civil society, politics, media, administration and academia from across Europe to assess:
- the remaining days of procedural fine-tuning, including issues related to the identification and verification requirements as well as the e-platform for the ECI;
- the preliminary ideas and ongoing projects which will shape the first European Initiative cycle before the procedures are revised in 2015/2016;
- contributions to the supportive infrastructure, which will be critical for making the ECI a truly pan-European and citizen-friendly tool - including a shared back office called the “European Citizens' Initiative Office”.
- and finally, the bigger picture of participatory democracy enshrined in Arts. 10.3 and 11 TEU: how to follow up the strengthened requirements for information, consultation and dialogue between the EU institutions and civil society.
The European Citizens' Initiative is the key part of a comprehensive citizens' participatory package established by the Lisbon Treaty. What happens to the other participatory democracy tools in the Treaty?
Modern direct democracy is an integral part of representative government. The European Citizens' Initiative is just a first step at the transnational level, which is already being complemented by proposals and discussion on how to establish us the citizens also as decision-makers, for example by having pan-European popular votes on substantives issues (“referendums”).
Join the work at this very promising and challenging moment of democratic history, when millions across the world are struggling for more democratic rights.