On 27th of September from 6pm to 9pm Eumans held its quarterly Assembly. Below you find the Statement that was voted by the Members (17 votes in favor - 1 Abstention) and here is the recording of the session.
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On 27 September 2022, the Assembly of EUMANS – a pan-European movement of popular and nonviolent initiative - identifies the affirmation of citizens' civil and political rights, through the defense and strengthening of instruments of democratic participation, as a priority for action and pre-condition for obtaining substantial reforms that improve the quality of life and the environment.
It recognises in the "Referendum and Democracy initiative" (which represents the attempt to present a list with 30,000 digitally signed signatures in the Italian elections, which were not recognised as valid by the Italian state) a popular action capable of revealing the constitutional illegalities of the electoral system and, at the same time, the urgency of ensuring maximum investment in strengthening the instruments of democratic participation, starting with:
- The full implementation of the European digital identity and its use and adequate information on participation instruments at all levels (participatory budgets, popular initiative laws, referendums, presentation of electoral lists).
- The need to establish Citizens' Assemblies drawn by lot at a local, national, and transnational level.
The Assembly of the EUMANS considers the self-organization of participation tools and the activation of national and soon international jurisdictions to expand and develop inclusive forms of participation as a determining factor for the effectiveness and recognition of the movement's methodology.
Therefore, the Assembly mandates the executive bodies to:
- Identify opportunities to experiment with deliberative processes using the method of civic assemblies drawn by lot, starting with discussing objectives related to fundamental rights, climate, health, and freedom.
- Continue the initiative to strengthen the tools of digital, electoral and participatory democracy at the European level, starting with European digital citizenship and, in particular, concentrating its direct actions on the event "A Rule of Law Based Digital Democracy" organised by Science for Democracy in Brussels in December 2022.
- Continue to work to create the conditions for possible European and transnational civic initiatives on the objectives defined at the Warsaw Congress, including a global carbon price, a European living will, and the legalization of controlled substances such as cannabis.
- Immediately start the search for human and economic resources to ensure the sustainability of the next EUMANS Congress to be held again in Warsaw in the first half of 2023, in particular through the activation of the statutory instruments of the EUMANS Groups, the EUMANS Register for Assemblies and investments necessary for the organization of the movement, especially in the digital field.
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Without a strong democracy there is no future for Europe - invitation to the EUMANS Quarterly Assembly
Democracy is not an empty vessel. Democracy is the guarantee of the right of people to live in safe places, to see their fundamental rights protected, to be enabled to consciously live the best possible life. At the same time, Democracy is the fundamental right that citizens have to participate in public life, through elections but also and above all through access to deliberative processes, according to the forms guaranteed by the Constitution.
In recent weeks, the need to protect democracy has been evoked in at least three important transnational scenarios.
On 25 September, Italy will go to early elections. The public debate is mainly focused on the possible victory of Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Fratelli d'Italia party, and the centre-right coalition. But hardly anyone is addressing the big issue of how these elections came about.
The initiative of the List Referendum and Democracy, promoted by Eumans, is the only one to have dealt with this problem, denouncing the violations of access to the electoral competition with a judicial complaint, and digitally collecting signatures to stand as a candidate, after having repeatedly asked the government to remedy the discrimination by legalising this method of collection (you can read the full story here).
On 15 September, the European Parliament voted on a report that once again denounced Hungary's systematic violation of Article 2 of the European Treaty on fundamental rights. And here, too, for the first time, the issue of the functioning of elections and thus of democracy itself entered among the dangers to the rule of law.
On 15 September the President of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen in the State of the Union only briefly mentioned how important it is to start a path towards a European Convention also starting from what was determined by the outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe. But she did so with a feeble voice - differently from the expectations of the EU civil society, partly also due to the lack of support within the European Council. Yet the conference, based on panels of citizens drawn by lot and a digital deliberative platform, could become a fundamental building block for the democratisation process of the European Union, if only the European institutions would invest in this direction.
This is the European and global scenario in which we want to intervene with our proposals. That is why we invite you to register to attend the EUMANS Assembly on Tuesday 27 September from 6 to 9 p.m. in Italian and English. It will be the occasion to meet the activists who have been carrying on in these months the initiatives of EUMANS for democracy, in Italy and beyond (Referendum and Democracy Initiative), those who are mobilising for a global agreement on carbon pricing at COP27, the activists of the coalition Citizens Take Over Europe for the strengthening of participatory democracy (starting from the Blueprint for an Assembly drawn at European level but also at national level) and for new European citizens' initiatives. Such as the one on European citizenship promoted by the ECIT Foundation, the one on Universal Income and the one we have tried to start - but for which we do not yet have the resources, for the legalisation of cannabis at European level.
During the Assembly we will review the goals we set ourselves in the last motion and the urgent actions taken during the summer and the results achieved by connecting them to the general motion of the last Congress in Warsaw in order to define the priorities for the coming months, to continue to self-organise our movement, to make it welcoming and sustainable for citizens like you, NAME and define priorities for the next Congress - for which it is important to start working - to be held in the spring of 2023, perhaps still in Warsaw.
