In Europe, the very first transnational citizens´ initiative has received its official response. It is a showcase of how people power can be developed across borders - but also of how one man is able to literally water down a democratic (r)evolution.
In a world of rising autocracies, contested freedoms and struggling representative governments, this can be called a genuine success story. A still somewhat secret one, however, as most people still know very little about it. And yet it is a story that is almost too good to believe: a new modern direct democracy is spreading across Europe, employing the latest technologies for the benefit of almost half a billion people.
We are talking about the European Citizens´ Initiative (ECI), probably the most innovative and revolutionary element of the European Union´s democratic development in more than 25 years. The ECI offers the opportunity to one million citizens from at least seven EU member states to propose a new law for Europe by (mainly) electronic collection of signatures [In the process, it establishes a fundamental right of popular participation in the EU lawmaking process.
On Wednesday of this week (March 19), a new chapter in this still young story was written: the governing body of the European Commission gave its very first answer - a formal Communication - to the organizers of the first ECI campaign to submit a completed process. This initiative, called "Right2Water", asked the Commission to propose legislation requiring member states to provide all their citizens with sufficient clean drinking water and sanitation. 1,659,543 verified signatures were gathered all over the EU for this initiative.
And the Commission answered "yes"
"Europe´s citizens have spoken and today the Commission gave a positive response", Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič emphasized at a press conference. And he added: "Water quality, infrastructure, sanitation and transparency will all benefit as a direct result of this first-ever exercise in pan-European, citizen-driven democracy".
Nice words indeed from Mr Šefčovič, who throughout the whole process of implementing and introducing the fundamental new right of transnational participatory democracy, has been the "good guy" in the Commission on the ECI. No doubt the very presence and activity of the ECI-positive Commissioner, and especially some his closest officials, made a difference when the ECI regulation was adopted in 2011 and when the practice started two years ago.
Since then 45 ECIs have been filed with the Commission: 17 of them never made it into the official Registry, as they were refused for formal reasons. Most of the refused initiatives had made proposals that are outside the Commission´s competence to initiate legislation – including initiatives to prohibit prostitution, to establish an alternative pan-European bank, and to recommend the singing of the EU anthem in Esperanto, which is the most widely spoken artificial language worldwide. But still, most of the proposed initiatives were registered - covering social policies (23%), constitutional matters (16%), and issues related to the environment (16%). Most of the initiatives were launched by European organizations, while a smaller number originated in youth groups and political parties.
And the Organisers said "bad"
The "positive" reaction of the Commission to the "Right2Water" initiative received negative feedback from the organizers themselves - because it did not include a specific legislative proposal to implement the initiative: "The reaction of the European Commission lacks any real ambition to respond appropriately to the expectations of 1.9 million people", commented Jan Willem Goudriaan, vice-president of the ECI Right2Water. "I regret that there is no proposal for legislation recognising the human right to water." Why no legislation? The answer is that one man was able to water this down. And that man is none other than the boss of "good guy" Šefčovič, Mr. Commission President, José Manuel Barroso.
Mr. Barroso's lost trust
Once upon a time, Mr Barroso was very outspoken - and very proud of the European Citizens´ Initiative. Almost ten years ago . when the new citizens´initiative right had been included in the EU constitutional treaty draft – he declared that the this right would finally "bring more democracy" to Europe. That was in 2005, and Barroso used this argument at a speech in the Netherlands to promote a "Yes’ vote on the eve of the Dutch referendum on the " constitutional treaty’. With the famous "No"-votes in both France and the Netherlands, José Manuel Barroso lost his faith not only in European citizens but also in any tool for the citizens to make their voices heard. In all the years since then Barroso has not only been silent about participatory democracy at the EU level and the ECI, he also discouraged anybody in his Commission from promoting it. As a key player when it comes to looking forward at strategic issues, Barroso´s negative attitude has made the ECI a far less efficient process for democratizing EU democracy than expected or hoped for.
Nonetheless, the process with the "Right2Water" initiative specifically and the growing ECI practice in general offer a showcase for how people power can and should be developed in the decades to come. The whole ECI story — principles, procedures and practices — offers some great answers to at least three challenges linked to democracy.
Global preview
First, in order to turn our representative systems into truly representative democracies we need more and better tools of direct democracy. Second, as nation states become less and less suited to dealing with cross-border issues, people power must be extended to the transnational level. And third, we live in a digital century, where our ways of making decisions should no longer be limited to analogue and paper-based procedures - but need to go digital as well - by providing both back-end management and front-end collection of signatures on the internet the ECI has brought an electronic democratic umbrella to Europe. As the world´s first direct, transnational and digital democratic process, the ECI thus represents something of a global preview to the future of democracy.
