“For
a new beginning of the European
political project”
This
historic transition of the next two
decades cannot take place unless
Europeans take their common destiny
in hand, and together invent this
Europe of tomorrow.
The
skills, methods, instruments,
and actors needed for piloting
the European Union of the next
decades are totally different
to those used in the phase of
construction. They are still
to be invented, just as they
were in the post-war decade by
the “founding fathers” of
the EU. The level of challenge
is the same as that facing Schuman,
de Gaspéri, Adenauer et
Monnet when they invented new
institutions, methods and strategies
to avoid the return of a war
in Europe.
For Newropeans,
in particular for the generations
born after the Treaty of Rome,
the challenge is to invent a
method which allows 500 millions
EU citizens
to be the principal deciders of the main policy orientations decided on by
the European Union, as much in domestic policy matters as in its relations
with the rest of the world. We can only achieve this goal by creating a completely “new
beginning” for the EU.
A
democratised European Union
is not simply the EU as we
currently know it with the
addition of democracy on top.
It is a European Union that
is radically transformed in
its institutions, its methods
of functioning, and its political
actors, and all that with the
aim of allowing citizens and
peoples to be placed in the
driving seat of the community
system. This is all the more
radical given that today they
have no role in the system.
Newropeans,
the first trans-European political
movement … because the
EU is too important to be left
in the hands of national parties
and of bureaucrats
For Newropeans,
the first step to allowing
the success of the democratisation
of the EU is to build a
large trans-European political
movement.
For
the first time in the history
of Europe, Newropeans presents the same vision of a collective
future in all the countries
of the European Union and
will run on this basis in
the European elections of
2009. It is time to awaken
the “Sleeping Beauty” of
European democracy, which
is in fact the European Parliament,
by having European citizens
elected who have the intention
of representing the citizens
of Europe, rather than career
politicians who seem to like
the idea a nice salary whilst
they retire from national
politics.
The
European Union has become
far too important for all
of our daily lives to be
left only in the hands of
national parties and of bureaucrats
who are out of control. Armed
with 16 proposals that have
emerged from debates with
10000 Europeans in 100 towns
in 25 countries, Newropeans is proposing a totally new
vision of a “democratised” EU,
based on the citizen, and
breaking completely with
the “Euroconformity” of
the European and national
institutions. These 16 proposals
will be progressively added
to and refined up until 2009
so as they can constitute
the basis of a political
platform, devised by the
members of Newropeans, in
order to present to electors
a comprehensive vision of
the EU which proposes European
solutions to the challenges
that have to be met from
Helsinki to Lisbon and from
Athens to Dublin..
In parallel to the European
elections, Newropeans will fight outside of
the framework of the
elections in order to
promote other aspects
of democracy
on the EU level, notably in all community policies it will seek to make
those who are currently “beneficiaries” into genuine “partners” in
the European project.
Newropeans,
a political movement with
a self-decided “limited
life-span”, which
is also destined to prevent
the rise of extremism
Newropeans is conscious of the fact that the
shift to democracy will not happen
on its own.
The
movement is therefore conceived
as being a “catalyst” allowing
the transition from a post-war
EU built by administrations
and national parties into a
democratic EU where the citizens
and peoples are the motors
of the major European decisions,
served by a genuinely European
competent and effective political
class, anchored in the values
of democracy, justice and openness
to the world. Once
this historic objective has
been achieved, Newropeans will
have lost its raison d’être
as seen from today.
Newropeans is also conscious that there
are once again anti-democratic,
extremist and xenophobic political
forces that are emerging on the
European level, trying to make
Europe inward looking, and rejecting
its internal diversity. They
feed on the “political
vacuum” which is currently
at the heart of the European
project and the fears that this
generates in our populations.
Newropeans believes that the
European elections of 2009 will
be the first major confrontation
between its hope for democratic
EU that is open to the world
and a “national-Europeanist” view,
which risks repeating the European
nightmare of the 1920s and 30s.
It is certainly not our national
political parties, which lack
credibility on European issues,
which will be able to oppose
these negative forces with any
success.
Newropeans is conscious that it is a political
force with a « limited
life-span » of between
10 and 20 years maximum : the
time that is needed to make
successful the transition to
a democratic EU, which is its
only and unique objective.
That is the reason why Newropeans
will not present candidates
in any national, regional or
local elections.
Moreover,
any European citizen, even one
who belongs to a national, regional
or local political force, is
welcome to join this first political
movement at the level of our
continent. The only individuals
who are automatically excluded
are members of anti-democratic
or xenophobic parties, as well
as officials of the EU institutions
(for as long as they are covered
by the life-long judicial immunity
which Newropeans wishes to see
eliminated with a view to maintaining
the principle of equality of
each citizen before the law).
Newropeans,
an instrument to help the
EU expand the frontiers of
democracy
in terms of size and of diversity, an essential contribution
to the world in the XXIst Century
Making
the EU more democratic is an issue
for all citizens. It is hoped that
Newropeans can be an instrument
at the service of citizens to allow
the necessary evolution for our
future and that of our children..
It is furthermore hoped that the
European project could be a bearer
of hope for other continents which
are attempting regional integration,
such as Africa,
Latin America, and parts of Asia etc. For the planet one of the central questions
of the XXIst Century will be to reply to the question “how can we combine
the immense diversity of size, of culture and of power of the countries around
the globe whilst avoiding that the strongest dominate?”
If
we, in Europe, are capable
of proving, by example, that
it is possible to expand
the frontiers of democracy
in terms of size of population
and diversity of cultures
and to show that it is possible
to govern democratically
a political entity of 500
million people of almost
30 nationalities, and respect
national and regional democracy,
then we will have also
contributed to improving
our planet in
the most efficient manner
possible: by means of example,
rather than preaching.
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