COVID-19: OVER 3,000 SIGNATURES IN JUST A FEW HOURS FOR THE FIRST PETITION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ADDRESSING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
Ahead of tomorrow’s extraordinary plenary session of the European Parliament, a group of citizens and NGOs are presenting a petition to the EP, asking for a coordinated response to the coronavirus outbreak – see full text of the petition here
25th March 2020 – The first petition to the European Parliament on the coronavirus crisis gathered more than 2,000 signatures in a few hours, as a result of the Council for Participatory Democracy, the first self-convocated online assembly to discuss the reforms needed for Europe immediately, during the Coronavirus outbreak, and the means to achieve them.
The Coronavirus outbreak unveils all the fragilities of the European Union as we know it. And it calls for an urgent strategy to manage health, economics and welfare measures, civil protection, incentives for technology and research, and guarantees for the rule of law and fundamental rights.
The petition represents the outcome of the Council and has been supported by most of the participating organisations and representatives, including former MEPs Marco Cappato (“European of the year” in 2002 and funder of the paneuropean movement “Eumans”), Monica Frassoni (former President of the European Greens), Iga Kamocka from the Polish Robert Schuman Foundation, Jesse Colzani from The Good Lobby, Ulrike Guerot from the European Democracy Lab, and plenty more.
The content of the petition can be summarised in 5 pillars:
1. activating coordinated emergency measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic;
2. enhancing the EU healthcare and civic protection instruments and competences to respond to outbreaks;
3. implementing economic measures to allow the EU to unlock resources to support citizens with the consequences of the pandemic, including withdrawing the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and proposing a new 5-year MFF;
4. turning the first stages of the Conference on the Future of Europe into a public online assembly and reshape its goals;
5. contributing to a global mechanism to prevent and face epidemics and pandemics;
Details including the full text and the list of signatories can be found at: https://www.eumans.eu/eucandoit
Marco Cappato, who has led the initiative, and Virginia Fiume, Eumans coordinator, said: “Addressing a petition to the European Parliament is a way to prove that EU reform can come from citizen participation, and democracy can’t be stopped by any of the restrictive policies that Member States are implementing in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The EU institutional instruments of citizen participation are available online and can be used in times of quarantine to mobilise on the core goals of the fight to the virus and the preparation for the recovery. Citizens’ proposal could push the European Parliament to discuss a systemic and common response in the special plenary session convened on 26 of March to speed up the implementation of corona measures to fight Covid-19”.