European Citizens’ Initiative: Engaging with citizens at the Democracy Alive! Festival in Texel, the Netherlands

The European Citizens’ Initiative team visited Texel as part of the three-year long European Citizens’ Initiative Roadshow, which was launched last year. Since then the Roadshow has already visited Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Austria, Malta and Romania.

The Democracy Alive! Festival celebrates European Democracy!

The European Citizens’ Initiative team joined the Democracy Alive! Festival, a three day event aimed at gathering decision-makers, organised civil society, business, trade unions, influencers, activists and, most importantly, citizens to take part in the celebration of European democracy.

Raising awareness towards the European Citizens’ Initiative at the “Democratise Europe Pavilion”

The European Citizens’ Initiative team welcomed visitors to the “Democratise Europe Pavilion” sharing the space with the European Commission Representation in The Hague and other organisations including Netwerk Democratie, Commons Network, the Embassy of the North Sea and European Alternatives.

The team organised two activities during the festival: a workshop (“How to promote your European Citizens’ Initiative and find partners for your campaign?”)and a quiz (“Test your knowledge of the European Citizens’ Initiative!”). During these activities, visitors of the festival took the time to discuss ideas and share experiences on participatory democracy and the European Citizens’ Initiative.

During the workshop, the discussion focused on the following aspects: key insights, objectives, challenges, solutions and actions to take.

The group came up with some valuable questions and input:

• How to find seven people to form the committee and start drafting a proposal?

The participants defined this issue as one of the most demanding. They highlighted the importance of the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum, as a platform where the citizens can find the help they need to find partners interested in the same cause as receive expert advice for the drafting process. The group found this space very useful to build a strategic partnership to carry out their initiative.

• Which issues can be the subject of a European citizens’ initiative?

A key element discussed among the participants was the importance of carefully selecting an issue and looking at the successful ‘best practices’ adopted by some countries on that specific topic. They pointed out, as an example, that a potential initiative on healthcare could be drafted based on the most successful healthcare systems in the EU. They all concurred that sharing experiences and lessons learned is the best way to draft a strong meaningful proposal.

• How to raise funds and find time to run a campaign?

The participants also focused their attention on two relevant challenges: money and time. As they said:  ‘Carrying out a campaign requires considerable financial and time resources’ and ‘Raising money locally for something happening far away, at EU level is tough’. In addition, people working on a full time basis can hardly find time to dedicate to this initiative. After an interesting brainstorming, they came up with the following ideas:

• relying on a solid network of local NGOs and organisations which often operate both at local and international levels;
• designating a full time worker within each organisation exclusively in charge of running the initiative;
• creating a “lobby of citizens” aiming to support their initiatives and identifying the best practices in the legislative systems of the other countries.

In conclusion, the participants emphasised that the success of an initiative is highly dependent on the choice of a relevant topic, which can trigger an interest not only locally but also at an EU level. Finding the right topic will attract the attention of more citizens and help its promotion across European borders.