Actie voor Europabreed referendum tijdens IGC (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - While EU leaders were getting down to the tricky business of negotiating a European Constitution on Friday (12 December), pressure to consult Europe's citizens on the result was visible outside on the street.

Just below the windows of the Council where governments were debating, activists from the European Referendum Campaign (ERC) had put up a 7m high inflatable display symbolising the EU-Constitution with an arrow demanding "only by fair referenda" pointing to it.

In nearby Place Luxembourg, the British Vote 2004 campaign launched a campaign demanding that Tony Blair listen to UK citizens and hold a referendum.

Strange bed fellows

Meanwhile, in the European Parliament an NGO conference with European Federalists, Eurosceptics as well as Direct Democracy representatives gathered to discuss "Visions for a democratic Europe".

The meeting clearly demonstrated the difficulty in getting these disparate bed fellows together in a common campaign to collect signatures from citizens demanding referenda on the EU Constitution.

While the Italian Young European Federalists have already decided to support the campaign for a referendum the adult wing of the organisation, the Union of European Federalists, is not yet on board.

"The time is not right, it is premature as there is no European Press and no European political parties", said Ms Kristina Weich Hondrela, Organisation Manager of the Union of European Federalists in Brussels.

She explained that national referendums were for the nations to decide, while the Federalists would only support referendums if held at the European level.

Bruno Kaufmann from the Amsterdam-based Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe hit out at this position saying that having referendums in all EU member states on the same day on the same Constitution would be a big step in the right direction.

"We have to move forward step by step", he urged.

One million signatures before 9 May

So far, the idea is to collect signatures throughout Europe calling for a referendum on the European Constitution and to hand them to EU leaders, when they meet in Rome on 9 May 2004 (Europe Day) to sign the Constitution.

Seven countries have already declared that they will consult their citizens: Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

The draft Constitution worked out by former French president Válery Giscard d'Estaing's Convention opens the door for citizens' initiatives. Article 46 says:

"No less than one million citizens coming from a significant number of Member States may invite the Commission to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where the citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing this Constitution."

This article should be tested straight away, the NGOs gathering in Brussels argued, with a minimum of one million citizens demanding the Constitution be adopted by the European Citizens through referendum.