1.
A European Union based on human values
The
Constitutional Treaty must set out clearly the values and objectives
of the EU. The values must guide the direction and policies of
the EU in the future. A clear description of the EU’s objectives
will improve the understanding of citizens of the purpose of the
EU.
The
Treaty must include commitment to: human dignity and equality;
the peaceful and just resolution of conflicts; sustainable development;
social justice; the rule of law; democracy; the need for integrity
and accountability in public affairs.
The
Treaty must state that its fundamental values are indivisible:
that is, they are interdependent and must be balanced against
each other. Following from this is the need to mainstream the
fundamental values of the EU across all policy areas.
The
universal nature of these values must also be stated. The Preamble
of the Charter of Fundamental Rights currently includes reference
to both the indivisible and universal nature of fundamental values.
2.
Improvements to democracy and transparency within the EU institutions
Our
consultation process has highlighted the common perception of
the EU as centrally controlled, bureaucratic and difficult to
understand. To improve this situation, the EU institutions must
become more democratic and more transparent.
Recognising
the European Parliament and the Council of the EU as representing
the two ‘constituencies’ of the EU, that is, the citizens
and the member states respectively, there is a need to move to
a better balance between these two institutions and to improve
public understanding of the decision-making processes of the EU.
We therefore welcome moves within the Convention to extend the
Parliament’s powers of co-decision to a wider range of areas
and to open Council meetings to public scrutiny when it meets
in a legislative capacity.
3.
Citizens and the EU must be brought closer together
Democracy
in the EU cannot be improved simply by institutional reform. There
is a need for much greater effort to engage citizens with the
EU processes if the EU is to become relevant. Democracy should
be understood as a process of empowerment and participation: it
is not only about transparent and representative systems, although
these are of great importance.
Citizenship
involves both rights and responsibilities. To address the democratic
deficit, the EU needs to become more relevant to citizens in terms
of protecting and promoting their rights, and at the same time
it must enable citizens to act on their political responsibilities
and be able to participate in European level politics.
Protection
and promotion of citizens’ rights
We
welcome the likely inclusion of the Charter of Fundamental Rights
into the Treaty. This will make a clear statement about the importance
of human rights to the EU. The method of inclusion in the Treaty
must give the Charter maximum visibility and its inclusion in
the Treaty must be publicised widely.
The
rights of EU citizenship, currently enjoyed by nationals of member
states of the EU, should be extended to people legally residing
in the EU. On the basis of the universal and indivisible nature
of the values recognised in Articles 2 and 3 of the draft Constitutional
Treaty, the current discrimination between EU nationals and third-country
nationals should not be perpetuated. We draw your attention to
the submission to the Convention from the European Network Against
Racism (ENAR) for more detail on this proposal.
Enabling
citizens to fulfil their responsibilities
We
welcome the work of the Convention to simplify the Treaties into
one document, hoping that this will be a start in making the EU
more accessible to citizens. This must be backed up with greater
transparency in the mechanisms of the EU if citizens are to understand
and trust in its processes.
We
recommend the introduction of a ‘citizens’ information
file’ to be attached to every Commission proposal, stating
why the initiative was being proposed at that time and what it
was intended to achieve. It would indicate possible problems and
likely criticism, and would give a comprehensive list of everyone
who had been consulted or who had lobbied in the course of preparation
of the initiative.
In
addition to making the EU more open and accessible, citizens and
civil society organisations must be encouraged to be actively
involved in the processes of the EU. This participation requires
commitment from the institutions: we therefore join with many
civil society organisations in calling for a legal basis for civil
dialogue. We welcome the inclusion of Article 34 in the Preliminary
Draft Treaty, recognising the importance of participatory democracy.
We believe that to make participatory democracy a reality this
Article must be strengthened and recommend the following wording:
The
policy-making of the Union is based on the principle of participatory
democracy. Accordingly, it shall be the responsibility of the
institutions and bodies of the Union to take adequate measures
to promote and ensure dialogue with associations of organised
civil society at all stages of the policy making and legislative
processes, including the drawing up and adoption of proposals
and the monitoring and review of the implementation of policy.
In
implementing this Article, we recognise the value of existing
processes to engage and involve citizens and civil society organisations.
We recommend that such processes are developed and built on in
an imaginative and constructive way.
The
role of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) is also crucial
in engaging citizens with the European process. As elected representatives,
it must be the clear responsibility of MEPs to communicate more
effectively with citizens.
These
improvements must be backed up with better education and better
publicity. A major finding of our project has been the extent
to which participants lacked information about and awareness of
European issues. Good quality, accessible and objective information
is vital if citizens are to be active members of European society.
The mechanisms for taking this information to citizens must be
improved: although we recognise the steps that have been taken
to improve accessibility of information on the internet, this
is not enough. There is a role here for the EU, for national governments
through their education policy and for organisations such as QCEA
to educate and raise awareness among citizens.
In
particular we recommend that the outcomes of the Convention, and
eventually of the IGC, be publicised widely among the European
population. Participants pointed out the success of the public
information campaign surrounding the introduction of the euro:
a similar campaign would be appropriate to mark the implementation
of a Constitutional Treaty for the EU with the inclusion of the
Charter of Fundamental Rights.
4.
A value-based global outlook for the European Union
The
values of the EU, being recognised as universal human values,
must be applied to both the internal and external policies of
the EU. The Treaty must describe the EU’s commitment to
the universal, worldwide application of its values and objectives.
As
a major global power, the global responsibility of the EU and
its constituent member states is as wide as the impact of their
policies. The Treaty must therefore include a commitment to ensuring
that all policies, both internal and external, are assessed for
their global impact.
In
recognition of the interdependence of both internal and external
policy, there is a need for a coherent approach which can be provided
by commitment to the cross-cutting objectives of sustainable
development and conflict prevention.
The EU’s existing commitments to these objectives must be
upheld as the cornerstones of external action.
Sustainable
development
Global
sustainable development, incorporating social, environmental and
economic aspects, must be an explicit objective of all external
and internal policy of the EU. In particular there is a need to
prioritise the objective of sustainability within economic and
trade policy.
We
are concerned that within the work of the Convention too little
attention has been paid to the importance of development co-operation.
The report of the External Action Working Group made only minimal
reference to development co-operation and poverty eradication
and focused instead on the defence and promotion of the EU’s
values and strategic interests. It must be acknowledged that the
commercial interests of the EU will sometimes be in conflict with
its development aims. If the EU is true to its stated values these
development aims must take precedence, or at the very least be
given equal weight.
Conflict
prevention
We
believe that the EU is uniquely placed to play a role in the global
prevention of violent conflict and applaud efforts that have been
made in this direction. As the EU Programme for the Prevention
of Violent Conflicts explains: “The European Union is a
successful example of conflict prevention, based on democratic
values and respect for human rights, justice and solidarity, economic
prosperity and sustainable development.”
We
support the European Presidency Conclusions of the Göteborg
European Council (15 and 16 June 2001) which state that “Conflict
prevention is one of the main objectives of the Union’s
external relations and should be integrated in all its relevant
aspects, including the European Security and Defence Policy, development
cooperation and trade”. In accordance with these conclusions
we recommend that this existing commitment to conflict prevention
be included under Article 3 of the Draft Constitutional Treaty
(or the corresponding article in any future draft). There should
also be a specific mention of conflict prevention as the major
objective of CFSP and of the need to integrate conflict prevention
mechanisms into all aspects of external EU action.
We
are gravely concerned about moves within the Convention towards
higher defence spending and support for the European arms industry.
The European Commission, in its Communication on the Prevention
of Violent Conflict (COM(2001) 211, April 2001), cites “the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and small arms”
in a list of factors which aggravate conflict. Support for the
arms industry is thus clearly in opposition to the EU’s
objective of conflict prevention. We therefore urge the Convention
not to include the encouragement of the development of the European
arms industry as an aim of the EU, but rather to encourage disarmament
and non-proliferation as part of the EU’s commitment to
conflict prevention.
