We talk about the European Union. With this promise trips, and members of the government, currently through the country. Yet EU supporters say now: Real citizen involvement is different.
At first glance, the Federal government in terms of citizen participation in the European Union (EU), it seems to my now seriously. The German citizens should have a voice in German EU-policy in the future is a weighty word. Therefore, the Chancellery and the ministries organize 100 EU citizens ‘ dialogues, which take place in may throughout the country. The declared aim is to travel in December with a list of proposals to the EU summit in Brussels, as a visible proof that the voice of citizens counts.
As far as the theory that is currently being filled with life, if Ministers, state secretaries, and even the Chancellor, across the Republic of tours. The idea came from France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, wants to revive with civil conventions, the European idea. Now implemented in Germany, plan bar, with quite a huge amount of effort: economy Minister, Peter Altmaier, in the Brandenburg province of the questions of the citizens. The Federal Minister of justice, Catherine Barley is traveling to the Rhineland-Palatinate, Trier. On Tuesday, the Chancellor will be a guest in the Thuringian student town of Jena. In the centre of all EU citizens ‘ dialogues of the respective top-of-the politician, the top politician. And that is precisely the EU-political associations in Germany, there is a huge problem.
Economy Minister, Peter Altmaier, is a fervent advocate of European cooperation. Whether or not he should explain to the citizens ‘ dialogue, the EU, or better, the citizens listen to the questions currently many
Selle: “If citizens’ dialogues on the future of Europe, then right”
“It is not enough that the citizens may question the actions of Ministers, but rather it is a question that a politician must listen to, and perhaps even not in the first set,” said Linn Selle, President of the European movement in Germany, in an interview with DW. Selle represents the most important EU political Association in Germany, with almost 250 member organizations. Now, the Federal government launched a “Roadshow” in terms of European Union it considers to be in principle correct, but the implementation is wrong. “Our concern is that this Dialog keeps what was full-bodied promised, and that the frustration and disappointment among the citizens.”
Pro-European interest groups were formulated by the Federal government in the run-up to a catalogue of criteria for a dialogue on eye-level. Used it has, apparently, nothing. Of the nine required points, the Federal government does not currently fulfil from the point of view of the associations is not a single entirely.
Linn Selle, President of the network European movement Germany, here at a conference at the Federal foreign office
The Agenda of the Meeting was to strong of the ministries, and too little of the citizens themselves. And it remains largely unclear how the Federal government wanted to with the results of the Meeting, deal with it. A black box instead of real transparency, also this is poison for the credibility of the European idea, Selle. And even the way the Federal government to invite the EU citizens ‘ dialogues, with newspaper advertisements and direct invitations, is questionable. “You are not thinking basically about how to reach people who would not come anyway to such a citizens’ dialogues.” The Federal government organized a Roadshow under the EU-friends – and is so afraid of the direct confrontation with EU-sceptics?
Guérot: “It is not at all clear what is Europe”
For Ulrike Guérot, Professor of European politics and democracy research at the Danube University Krems in Austria, there is a clear target of what to achieve in the dialogue. In an interview with DW, she says: “Earlier, it was a fight over whether Europe should establish the internal market, or whether the Easter comes.” At the Moment, this is a clearly identifiable target is missing, which is why many of the “nice-intentioned” dialog attempts ran into the Void. A lot of target leading, it was as if the heads of state and government of the EU-27 were to agree to joint lighthouse projects for the future, to provide them prior to implementation in the European citizens ‘ dialogues to the discussion. An example might be for the scientist, the introduction of a single European unemployment insurance scheme from the year 2035. “So we had to discuss a lot of substance, whether we want it, and if so, what does it actually mean.”
Ulrike Guerot is a Professor of European politics and democracy research at the Danube University Krems (Austria) and Director of the European Democracy Lab in Berlin
It was to be noted, however, that the EU or ‘Europe’ had now become a highly political, highly contested concept. “It is not at all clear what Europe is,” says the European scientist, which also runs the European Democracy Lab in Berlin. For some, it means the protection from Terror, for others, the suffering of the European austerity policy. For the third go mainly to refugees and security. And so the discussions in Thessaloniki, Porto, Helsinki and Göttingen would have been partially decoupled from each other. “If we wanted to do with the citizens’ dialogues so correctly, we need to associate the different dialogues to each other, to look, we will find common intersections that we have all experienced the Same thing.” In short, the thing with the EU citizens ‘ dialogues seems to be more complicated than it seems at first glance. In any case, so Good does not equal well made.