Europe Is Born On April 1st, 2012
No jokes intended. It is serious. It is about people’s power.
It’s also the story of two friends. They like to discuss about many things. Things 25-year old men of the Erasmus generation talk about, in particular politics and Europe. But one lives in Brussels and the other one in Paris. Every month they both anxiously discover their phone bills and every month they consider putting an end to their endless communications on the phone…
Then comes the Lisbon Treaty. A text harshly criticized by politicians describing themselves as fierce opponents of Brussels’ Eurocrats... But besides giving more powers to the European Parliament, the Lisbon Treaty is also meant to create a European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI). A group of seven people from seven different countries can propose a legislative act, and if one million citizens sign it, the Commission has to officially tackle the problem.
It is interesting to underline that at the same time in France, a rewriting of the national Constitution was supposed to establish a similar operation, with nonetheless stricter conditions as regards parliamentary involvement and the number of signatures – 4.4 millions. Four years after, France is still waiting for its own Citizen’s Initiative to entry into force. But expelling Romas, undocumented workers, foreign graduates and being reelected seemed more important to Nicolas Sarkozy than effectively giving a new right to the French people.
But what about our two friends from Paris and Brussels? From April, 1st 2012, like all European citizens they are finally entitled the right to launch a Citizen’s Initiative to claim for, say, complete harmonization of the telecom sector, asking for instance for an all-inclusive unlimited flat-rate for all EU communications. And well, we just did on April, 1st 2012. Just like maybe hundreds of other Europeans at the same time, on issues ranging from International transaction tax to access to clean water.
Back to Europe. What remained the main criticism about Europe? Frequent answers by the average politicians : Distant, incomprehensible, and technocratic. It was true, and it’s not the so-called intergovernmental Fiscal Compact, a piece of future secondary legislation decided by heads of State and Governments, that can prove them wrong.
But on April 1st, 2012, this perspective has been reversed. From now on, Europe is beginning to work bottom-up. And history shows us that this grassroots evolution of democracy can never be stopped. It is now hardly avoidable that in the very near future pan-European lists will be presented for the European Parliament, continental referendums will be held and true European political parties will emerge. Triggered by the opening of the European Citizens’s Initiative, a European people is now taking shape. Europe is born on April, 1st 2012.
(Each article reflects the views of its author)
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