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Social Networks support the European Citizen Initiative
Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social networking sites will support European citizens’ initiatives that will be launched starting 1 April, corporate representatives said during a conference in Brussels last week.
The internet will be crucial for ordinary citizens wanting to launch an initiative and willing to gather one million signatures across at least seven countries.
“Social networks can be the partners to facilitate the match between the political world, this initiative and the internet,” said Erika Mann, former MEP and current Facebook managing director for EU affairs, told the 26 January conference.
However, citizens should not expect that social networks will create tailored platforms for each initiative. “Initiators should be platform-agnostic if they want to reach out to one million people,” argued Google’s director for public policy, Simon Hampton.
The major test is not the platform per se, but whether citizens feel really committed to push the initiative forward.
“Outside of Europe citizens, actions have changed things. It is up to the European Commission and the citizens of Europe to change things here,” Hampton said, referring to the Arab spring and how citizens empowered themselves to make a drastic change in their political system using the internet and social networks as tools.
Internet experts, however, made the point that online marketing of ideas will be crucial in order to spread the buzz about initiatives in the making.
If the initiatives gather a critical mass of virtual supporters, then a real campaign can shape up and organisers will be able to collect hundreds of signatures. “A citizen needs to be convinced before he is willing to give his ID number and sign the petition,” said Tony Venables from the European Citizens Action Service.
Spreading the buzz cannot be limited to the internet, though. A multimedia approach to galvanise the interest, the trust and the commitment of people in the new democratic tool will be needed. “If you don’t raise the awareness of people out there, you create a fertile ground for initiatives that will be hostile and Eurosceptic,” noted Venables.
Background
The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), as introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, allows citizens to request new EU legislation once a million signatures from a significant number of member states have been collected asking the European Commission to do so.
According to Article 11 of the treaty, "not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of member states may take the initiative of inviting the [European] Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the treaties".
The European Citizens' Initiative will therefore enable European citizens and civil society organisations to directly influence the political agenda of the EU for the first time in history.
Read the rest of the article on Euractiv.com
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