NEWSLETTER #9

21 October 2005

www.democracy-international.org

 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 

Content

 

0) EDITORIAL: WELCOME BACK ON BOARD, LARS

1) NEW COLUMN: INSIDE BRUSSELS

2) REPORT: DI MEETING

3) BAVARIA: 835 REFERENDUMS

4) AUSTRIANS WANT REFERENDUM

 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 

0) EDITORIAL: WELCOME BACK ON BOARD, LARS

 

by Ronald Pabst

 

Good news from our office in Brussels: Lars is back. This young

guy supported our work during the work in the European Convention.

Together with Michael Efler and Carsten Berg he formed the famous

Berlin Lobby Team. Lars convinced several Convention members to

sign our appeal for more democracy. Afterwards he finished his

studies and worked for a year for the Association of German

Chambers of Industry (DIHK) in Brussels.

Now he joins the Brussels office temporally. Lars has written the

first issue of our column: Brussels Inside. You find also a report

about our meeting in Brussels, the story of 825 local referendums in

Bavaria and news from Austria.

 

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 

1) INSIDE BRUSSELS

 

 

This is the first issue of our new column: “Inside Brussels”. You

will find information about our struggle for direct democracy.

This time Lars Bosselmann reports, that MEPs are not ready to

draw the curtain over the EU-Constitution and explains some

details on the legendary Plan D. They were presented by the

EU Commission last week.

 

The complete column is available at:

www.democracy-international.org/insidebrussels-nr1.html

 

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 

2) REPORT: DI MEETING

 

Please find a report on our meeting in Brussels on October 15 here:

 

www.democracy-international.org/meetingoct15.html

 

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 

3) BAVARIA: 835 REFERENDUMS

 

In Bavaria citizens can initiate local referendums since 10 years.

This was celebrated with an event organized in cooperation with

the Christian Democrats (CSU). They opposed heavily introduction of

referendums in 1995.

But the good practice of direct democracy in Bavaria has

convinced many representatives of the CSU, that referendums

improve the quality of political decisions.

In the meantime citizens have started 1371 initiatives, 835 of them

have resulted in a local referendum.

 

More information available at:

www.democracy-international.org/referendumsinbavaria.html

 

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 

4) AUSTRIANS WANT REFERENDUM

 

According to a recent poll, a 73% of the Austrian population demand

a referendum on the EU Constitution.

 

Read more

www.democracy-international.org/austrianpoll.html

 

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 

Ronald Pabst / Carsten Berg

 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS NEWSLETTER CLICK

HERE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS:

www.democracy-international.org/newsletter.html