For a democratic Europe

Contacts :

Michel Christian (Lyon) michristian@wanadoo.fr

Frank Bernhardt attac-thueringen@web.de

Carla Krueger (Berlin) carlakrueger@freenet.de

This workshop included :

1. the Lisbon Treaty : state of ratification in the remaining countries, irish-european campain no-means-no (see http://www.no-means-no.eu/) and how to act in his/her own country.

2.the project of a European constitution (Plan P): this project has been launched by Attac Lyon and Attac Torino and written by different european local groups since 2006. The text will be discussed and modified according to the changes we will agree about. You'll find a presentation of the Plan P by clicking on the following adress:

http://www.local.attac.org/rhone/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=263

3.the wikipedia project: this project is about how to use (and to modify) wikipedia pages; the project implies exchanging knowledge  about the EU-institutions in different languages in order to modify and re-write wikipedia pages in every languages. You'll find the presentation of the project below.

Outcome

(YOU WILL FIND THIS MINUTES IN THE DOCUMENT BELOW)

Part 1: Friday afternoon: For a democratic Europe

Coordinators : Carla Krüger, Michel Christian, Franck Bernhardt

About 35 persons attending

After various tries, the exchanges were translated in English and in French

The workshop was linked to the next day’s « Lisbon Treaty and Irish No ». Michel (For a Democratic Europe) and Christophe (Lisbon Treaty and Irish No) presented the workshop.

Three themes were debated in « For a democratic Europe » :

- The Lisbon Treaty

- The alternative constitution project, Plan P

- The Wikipedia Project

1.Lisbon Treaty

Some information was given on the state of ratification in the countries that haven’t ratified the Lisbon Treaty yet. Carla presented the situation in Germany, following a ruling by the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe (Germany’s Supreme Court) : the ruling will probably not hinder the final ratification by Germany but it is of interest to us, as it acknowledges for the first time the lack of legitimacy inherent to European institutions (there is no European State) and consequently, demands that the Bundestag be given more powers to control the European legislative process.

2. The alternative constitution project, Plan P

Some attac people from Weimar and Jena (Thueringen) have read and worked on Plan P. They commended the text for being a grassroots initiative which pools the efforts of activists from various European countries.

Two issues were then debated :

The contents of Plan P:

- The word « people » is ambiguous, as Plan P refers to a « Union of Peoples » but also to a « Union of peoples made of citizens », or to « States », as opposed to the Union. This points to the coexistence of European peoples and THE European people. It also points to the coexistence of peoples as ethnic groups (with a cultural identity) and peoples as the sum of citizens (defined as holders of political rights)

- The role of banks: In the current Plan P, there exists a Central Bank controlled by the political powers. Should a Bank of investment be added ? Should the States have a monopoly on creating money ? This leads to the following question : should a constitution be favourable to a given economic order or should it merely define political rules without setting an economic order of things ?

- Using masculine and feminine endings : in the current version only the masculine forms appear, some think this should be changed, others think it may cause more difficult reading.

- Regulating lobbies: The current text does not include any provision on the subject so far, although lobbies take part in the legislative process (which is naturally porous, as governements submit bills that were crafted by private interests). The question therefore needs to be addressed, but it may not be the role of a constitution to regulate the activity of private interests. A constitution should perhaps state the need for a law on the subject, while leaving its contents to the Parliament.

- The motto of the Plan P is currently : peace, solidarity, equality, liberty. It was suggested to keep the EU motto as it is (Unity in Diversity)

The political impact of the text:

- The form of the project : should the text be finalized (in order to be handed out) or should it retain its evolutive nature ? The evolutive version is intended to attract more and more contributors and is therefore a tool for transnational education.

- Making the text public : the text is difficult to read but it also exists in a digest form. (It would need to be revised, though, to show that Plan P is a democratic alternative to the current non democratic system). The text has a federalist stance based on the idea of a European state. Will it be welcomed in societies that put the national government first ? Opinion polls (Eurobarometers) show that Europeans are in fovor of a European political power. Moreover, the European identity does not threaten national identities but will rather coexist with them, as history has shown a number of times, one can have plural identities.

- The current context : if the NO wins in Ireland, the text would have a real impact : we could demand the end of treaties and the launching of a democratic, possibly constitutional, process. If the NO loses, the text remains a useful pedagogic tool to denounce the current lack of democracy.

3.The Wikipedia project:

The project consists in systematically altering the articles of the Wikipedia encyclopedia on the European Union. It has so far been done in French.

The people present at the workshop agreed that wikipedia should not be idealized but used, as a space that had better be taken by us rather than by others.

The workshop was successful in

- bringing more participants to the wikipedia project (16 persons volunteered)

- establishing cooperation in different languages (so that the work already done in one language is useful to those working in other languages). The plan is to extend the project to German, Spanish, Italian, and English wikipedias.

Part 2: Sunday morning and afternoon: Lisbon-Treaty and Irish NO-campaign

Coordinators: Michel Christian, Christoph Schill, Mark Walshe.

1) Introduction & expectations

After agreeing on the translation issue (from 9-12 only english necessary, 14-17 english and french) the widespread expectations and aims to this workshop were articulated according to the origin and interests of the participants. Reaching from the Campaign Against EU Constitution (CAEUC) background, the possible changing of the EU and how to work on a democratic project and last but not least information about the Lisbon-Treaty itself.

Aims for this workshop were firstly to inform about the Lisbon-Treaty its deficits and the current situation in Europe (and Ireland in particular). Secondly the campaigns in Ireland and the Plan “P” to democratize the EU were in focus with concrete action-taking possibilities. Thirdly the difficulties and questions should be targeted.

2) Input Constitution and Lisbon-Treaty

Michel presented a short summary of the democratic deficit of the rejected EU constitutional treaty (in short: it prescribed economic and social policies and had overall the tendency of fixing laws instead of a democratic dialogue) where the EU elites tried to introduce “an easy way of making policy”. The Plan “P” is a first step to more democracy and transparency.

The Lisbon-Treaty prescribes the same path than the one of the Maastricht-Treaty, the Treaty of Nice and the rejected constitutional contract. Summed up:

- Undemocratic: the EU is on the path of a project of the political and business elite – the Lisbon-Treaty shapes the power balance further away from the citizens and almost finalises this elite-project

- The neoliberal economic policy and extention of liberalisation and deregulation of public services speeded up since the Treaty of Maastricht and the Stability and Growth Pact is overemphasized in the Treaty of Lisbon!

- This leads to an immense pressure on government spending, which has a negative impact on the funding of public services and sustainable (green, social…) policies

- Overall the EU follows the tendency of imperialistic policies of enforcing economic, military and social competition – underpinned by military power (è necessary arms race) and not by the peace project of Europe which citizens want to envision (but according to the first point they cannot enforce their vision anymore).

3) Topics of the workshop

3 main issues:

1. How to build up a democratic EU

2. Campaign for a NO in Ireland in the Lisbon-Treaty-Referendum

3. European Activists Networking and Difficulties

In order to build up democratic structures in the European Union the issue of preventing the Lisbon Treaty becoming a reality is an important chance we must not let pass by. As the Austrian population had no chance to vote against the Lisbon Treaty – just like the citizens of 26 other EU countries – the Irish population has got the possibility to do so.

This was the reason to initiate the “irish-friends-vote-no-for-me”-campaign one year ago. Unfortunately our EU-elites think that the Irish population made a mistake and they “ask” them again to vote on 2nd October YES to the Lisbon Treaty. Several weaks ago the Austrian attac-activists and Lisbon opponents started to work on the “no-means-no”-campaign. While trying to do so, several difficulties to interrelate, connect and share ressources with the other European attac networks and Lisbon Treaty opponents came to light.

But we have a vision of a democratic EU based on peace and solidarity! We say YES to Europe, but NO to the Lisbon Treaty.

4) Addition: Declaration to support the Irish NO

[Plenary comments by Mark Walshe, European Activists Meeting, Paris, 20 September 2009]

Bonjour,

Je m'appelle Mark Walshe et je suis membre de la campagne contre la constitution europeenne en Irlande. Je voulais juste vous parler un peu de notre campagne en Irlande. Je vais parler en anglais....

Several people have asked me about the polls. All of the polls indicate that the Yes side is ahead. But there are two things to bear in mind about these polls. First, like the last time, there are still a large number of 'don't knows', people who haven't yet decided which way they're going to vote. And secondly, all the polls last time indicated that the Yes side was ahead, except one of the final polls, which showed a significant swing to the No side. And the No side won. So I believe we still have a good chance and much will depend on what we do in the remaining 12 days.

And that's where Attac comes in. There are two ways that you can help us. The first is, as Susan George mentioned at the plenary yesterday, is to give us whatever financial assistance you can. On our website www.SayNo.ie, S-A-Y-N-O dot I-E, you can click on 'Join Us' and become a member of the campaign. It's €15 if you're unemployed and €45 if you're working. The membership fee is payed through PayPal. Or, you can contribute directly to ATTAC France by writing a cheque payable to ATTAC France with 'solidarite irlandaise' in brackets (parenthesis). And I want to thank you sincerely for all of the support you've given us to date and your ongoing support.

The second way you can help us is to come to Ireland. Earlier this week, the UK Independence Party delivered a anti-immigration, racist leaflet to every house in Ireland calling for a No vote. The Yes side, in particular the government, have used this to try to suggest that opposition to Lisbon is xenophobic and reactionary. It is vitally important that we show that opposition to Lisbon is in fact progressive, that we want a social, democratic and de-militarised Europe, where the rights of people take precedence over the rights of business. We can do that by having hundreds of citizens like yourselves from other EU Member States on the streets in Dublin, handing out leaflets, talking to people and explaining that you've come to Ireland to campaign for a No vote because you were denied a referendum in your own country.

At our workshop people were anxious to get precise details about how to get to Dublin, who to contact on arrival, about accommodation and so on. I have agreed to write an invitation letter with all of the details you need and I will make it available to Christophe by tomorrow so that he can send it to all of you. We will be able to provide some free accommodation. The Irish Socialist Party, which is a real socialist party (unlike the Parti Socialiste here), has already agreed to pay for a room in a hostel for a full week, with six to eight beds. It is likely that our second largest trade union will pay for the following week. A part from that, many of our activists will be able to offer accommodation in our houses, like we did last year. We can’t guarantee free accommodation for hundreds, but contact us and we’ll do our best to arrange something for you. All of these details will be in the invitation letter that I will send to Christophe tomorrow.

Attachment	Size
Minutes of the workshop for a democratic Europe - Lisbon Campain.doc	49.5 KB