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GOV2U was at the Press Conference hosted by 1st ECI in the European Parliament

 

 

GOV2U took part in the Press Q&A session hosted within the European Parliament by Fraternite 2020, the first European Citizen Initiative registered by the European Commission. The conference gathered representatives of different NGOs supporting the initiative, such as the Erasmus Student Network, AEGEE-Europe and the European Cultural Parliament Youth Network.

Among the notable speakers of the conference, there were three Members of Parliament who have also voiced their support to the Initiative, such as Mr. Gerald HÄFNER (GREENS/EFA, DE), Rapporteur on the ECI, Kinga GÖNCZ (S&D, HU), Roza THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (EPP, PL).

After a brief overview of the goals and current status of the initiative, each MEP proceeded by sharing a few words on the importance of ECIs in general, and the reasons behind their support to this particular ECI. The floor was then handed to journalists and members of civil society, who took turn to ask questions regarding the initiative itself, and on the technical difficulty behind implementing ECIs more generally.

GOV2U took this opportunity to stress that the current state of play of the open source signature collection system put forward by the European Commission has been extremely difficult to implement, due to excessive security requirements and linked to the need to invest significant amounts of money to cover the hosting costs. GOV2U has been working very closely with Fraternité 2020 on implementing the software, but due to the present constraints in funding has been unable to successfully certificate the online collection system so-far.

F2020 PRESS CONFERENCE

GOV2U reminded the honourable Members of the European Parliament of their duty to support ECI organisers in pushing the Commission to find alternative solutions to the problem at hand, in order to avoid the risk of disillusionment on behalf of citizens around Europe.

Whilst this first exercise of transnational direct democracy is indeed a significant step towards the creation of a strong European Citizenship, it is important to stress that the initiative could rapidly be stripped off its legitimacy if the European Commission fails to provide the means for citizens to really promote their own agenda. 

European Citizen Initiative | European Commission | European Parliament | Fraternite 2020 | Gov2u News

GOV2U attended the Press Q&A session hosted within the European Parliament by Fraternite 2020, the first European Citizen Initiative

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