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working group
Direct democracy at European
level / referendum on Constitutional Treaty
When talking about the future of
Europe almost everybody stresses the necessity of a more
democratic European Union. To strengthen the citizens` influence
on the integration process, to bring Europe closer to the
people… all actors of the constitutional process are
proclaiming these goals. But few of them offer ideas how
to realise a "citizens` Europe".
On a national level we count several experiences with direct
democracy on European matters, e.g. the people of Denmark,
France, Austria and Sweden voted directly on the Maastricht
treaty.
We want to discuss if direct democracy could prevent that
European integration becomes a project of the political
elite, not much understood nor supported by the majority
of the citizens. We are planning to focus on two questions
:
1. Should there be a referendum by
the European citizens on the upcoming constitutional treaty?
We should also think about specific procedures to realise
such a referendum.
2. How could the European citizens
participate directly in the EU-lawmaking-process? Here we
want to discuss possible voting procedures and the option
of a three-step-direct-legislation.
May this workshop bring together
people throughout Europe that are interested in and working
on subjects of direct democracy and referenda!
Gerald Häfner (member
of Bundestag, referendum expert)
Sebastian Keyserlingk, Assistant
Platz der Republik 1, 11011 Berlin, Tel: +49 (0)30 227-70064,
Fax: -76063, email: gerald.haefner@bundestag.de
Heidi Hautala (MEP), hhautala@europarl.eu.int,
http://www.vihrealiitto.fi/hautala
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