Our ECI proposal aims at strengthening European citizenship by giving citizens who reside in another Member State, a general right to vote, and not just in local and European elections. In the past few years, electoral campaigns and votes all over Europe have seen a strengthening of the most extremist wings and a rise of demagogic anti-EU political discourse. Furthermore, these forces are using democratic elections not to enhance democracy but to undermine its foundation on the rule of law and to fragment the continent. The counter-offensive must come from assertion of European values which can no longer be taken for granted.
In 1993, with the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty, EU citizenship was created and included the right for European citizens to vote and stand as candidates in local and European elections in a country other than their own in which they are resident. The addition of European political rights to the economic and social rights associated with freedom of movement was only a partial step forward, since it did not include regional elections or the ones which really count - the national or presidential ones. Furthermore, European citizens do not generally have the right to vote in referenda in their country of residence, even though there have been several on European issues over the last generation.
The effects would be:
• complete the political rights of European Citizenship,
• remove a stain on European democracy, and
• give the EU more prominence in electoral and democratic contests.
This proposed European citizens’ initiative would be based on Article 25 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) which gives a mandate to the European Commission to report every three years on the development of European citizenship and make proposals for its development. The next citizenship report is due in 2019. The Commission already accepted an ECI called ‘Let Me Vote’ based on Article 25, which was limited to the right to vote in national elections - this initiative goes further in demanding full political rights.
FInd attach the full text of the proposal for the ECI.
We are looking for potential partners/organisations that might be interested in the topic in order to launch the ECI. We are open to any kind of suggestions!!
Please, contact us directly to the email address: info@ecit-foundation.eu
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