NDDIE: a short overview about the development

The "NDDIE - Network for Direct Democracy in Europe" is a platform for all organisations and engaged individuals who share the objective of implementing an initiative and referendum process at all levels of political decision making. This concerns especially the local, regional, states and European level. We think these instruments of direct democracy in the 21. Century are necessary to improve, develop and also control representative democracy. In this respect our members exchange ideas, meet at conferences and think about common strategies to meet these goals. In this respect the Network for Direct Democracy in Europe was founded 1999 to bring movements for Direct Democracy together in a single network. The NDDIE is "only" a network. So it is no organisation like an association or something like that. There is nobody who speaks "in the name" of the network - except for organisational reasons. To have a specific point of view in content of several topics would be difficult because our members come from different political directions. The main purpose is to have a platform where people and organisations can meet who are interested in DD. The first NDDIE-Conference took place in November 2000 in Munich; the second in November 2001 in Prague. In Munich the main topic was to meet personally, to hear about the situation in each other's countries and to establish the network. In Prague we analysed the bottlenecks for further DD-developments in the different countries. We also discussed a concrete model, how Direct Democracy could work on a European/EU-level. In the meantime - apart from the NDDIE but based on its work - the idea of the EUROPEAN REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN was developed and is about to be realised. The Bratislava conference 2002 was a crucial event for the campaign were more than 80 individuals and organisations met who are interested to support this campaign actively.