By Jessica Reed in Brussels
25 different countries, 25 different cultures- you shouldn’t be surprised if nobody laughs at your jokes! - a participant of the ECC.
After the negative outcome of last year’s European referenda, the Union’s future looked a bit grim. What emerged was an undisputable need to (re)connect Europe with its citizens, in order to fix the ´democratic deficit´ the Union seems to face. Enters the European Citizens Consultation, a pan-European event which is taking place this weekend in Brussels. Its main intent is astoundingly simple: to gather 200 randomly-chosen European citizens in a room to hear them debating about what kind of Europe they want to live in. It is a bit of deliberative polling with a dash of direct democracy as an attempt to establish a much needed international bottom-up dialogue by its people, for its people – but also its policy-makers “Eurocrats”.
The event acknowledges that Europe may scare some of its citizens away: its preoccupations often seem far away (metaphorically and geographically, after all only the European Parliament is truly elected) from its inhabitants´ daily worries. But new impulses from the public itself can rally global understanding and support to the "European dream".
So here I am in Brussels for the week-end, blogging from a conference-room filled with European citizens armed with headphones (for translation), laptops (to vote interactively) and a good wireless connection (rare). So far they have been asked questions such as “Other than your native country, which European country would you like to live in?” (Funnily enough the Old Europe seemed to be more attractive with Spain, Italy, England and France are clear winners).When asked “How do you feel I general about Europe?”, 57.1 percent of the assembly answered “very happy”, 37.3 % “okay”, the rest being slightly dissatisfied. Well, that´s a good start.
As I write this, they were ask to think about other major topics that need to be debated - today’s focus is to prioritises policy issues that seem important and relevant to Europeans. As a French-European (or is it European-French?) myself, I would like to see certain topics brought up by me fellow citizens, such as:
• The EU´s policies on agriculture and immigration
• The progressive enlargement of the Union
• The possible addition of Turkey
• The problematic linked to a possible federalist Europe
• The need (or not) for a European Army
• The challenge of constructing a Social Europe as opposed to a global market-driven one
• The possibility of giving the European Parliament more executive powers.
What are yours?
