Inside Brussels
This is the first issue of our new column. You
find information about our struggle for direct democracy.
MEPs not ready to draw the curtain over the EU-Constitution
A plan of Johannes Voggenhuber and Andrew Duff for a fresh start of the constitutional process has been criticised by a vast majority of the members of the Constitutional Committee of the European Parliament. All leading parties are still hoping to save the Constitution, which was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands. Following the Committees debate on 3rd October, the Mr. Voggenhuber and Mr. Duff will work out a revision of the plan.
We will try to get the idea of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) into this revised text.
Commission presents details on Plan D
On 13th of October the EU-Commission has presented its contributions to the so-called “period of reflection”. During that time different ways out of the current crisis of the EU are debated. The Commission proposed 13 measures (e. g. citizens’ round tables). The document does not contain any new idea how to improve direct citizens’ involvement in European politics. Furthermore the financing of these measures is not ensured, since the European Parliament is blocking at the moment the sum of 6 million euro.
Unfortunately, the ECI is not mentioned anymore in the paper. Due to the pressure of Barroso and several member state governments the ECI was kicked out again.
This means for our work that we will have to double our efforts to convince representatives of the European Union.
