Site of the Month:
Euranet:
A network of 16 radio-stations from 13 EU-countries informs citizens through interviews and reports about the European Union.
The Netherlands
Website of the Politeia Member from the Netherlands: Dutch Centre for Political Participation
After the Dutch had rejected the European Constitution in the referendum of June 1, 2005, the government was at a loss how to continue. Should the European integration process be stopped, or even reverted? Or was the European Union rather in need of accelerated reform? There was a strong sense that the political elite had lost touch with the population. But should they have listened better, or should they have paid more attention to explaining the Constitution, to what might have been termed propaganda in more innocent times? Both the Dutch government and the Dutch quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad decided to try and involve the Dutch population in a discussion on the future of the European Union through the Internet.
In the aftermath of the referendum on the Constitutional Treaty in the Netherlands, people all around the European continent seemed baffled by the outcome. How was it possible that the citizens of one of the founding countries of the European Union - one might even say a country that had always been considered a model of compliance with European integration – rejected the ‘Constitution’? Even more unsettling perhaps than the mere refusal by the electorate was the turnout, which proved substantially higher than during the elections for the European Parliament the previous year. Not only did the Dutch turn the proposition at hand down, they did so in large numbers. Who is to blame (or should be praised if you like) for the outcome?
We know now that nearly two-thirds of the Dutch citizens (63.3%) who bothered to cast their vote at the referendum on the EU-Constitution (again nearly two thirds of the electorate, 61.5%) voted against ratification of the treaty. Ivo Hartman argues that it is difficult to know why people voted no since there where as many reasons as votes. He hopes that at even though the referendum turned out negative, European politics and citizenship will stay on the agenda for a while.
3 April 2007
Three Politeia member organisations were in February and March quite busy with the organisation of their national consultations of the European Citizens Consultations.
The Centre for Liberal Strategies in Bulgaria, the Partners for Democratic Change in Slovakia and the Dutch Centre for Political Participation are the national partners for the implementation of the unique and ambitious project “European Citizens Consultations”.
On a large agenda setting event in Brussel last year 200 ad random chosen citizens from throughout the EU decided the topics for the national consultations during two days of intensive discussion:
‘Energy and Environment’, ‘Family and Social Policy’, and ‘Immigration and the Role of the EU in the World’ turned out to be the most important issues.
In February and March national consultations were held in 27 EU-member states, where during a weekend groups of representative citizens tried to work out their national vision about the Europe they would like to live in in about 20 years. During these sessions, which were partly taking place at the same time, the participants of the national consultations even got the opportunity to get in touch with national consultations in other countries via Skype.
An impression of the Dutch national consultation will follow, and see the next article of the ‘News’ section for an impression of the Bulgarian discussion on the three European topics.
There are at least around 2000 Roma living the Netherlands (Van Meurs 2002), spread across different communities throughout the country. One community of 200 to 300 people is living in Nieuwegein, a small village of 60.000 inhabitants. Seven or eight families left Yugoslavia in the early 1970s, travelled through Italy, France and Belgium and ended up in the Netherlands. In the late 1970s they received residence certificates provided that they integrated in Dutch society.
The Dutch government claims to believe that the new European Reform Treaty, intended to replace the rejected text, does not have 'constitutional' implications. This new treaty, they argue, would represent merely a routine series of amendments and in terms of style, content and magnitude would be completely different from the one against which we successfully campaigned in 2005. For these reasons our government sees no need for a second referendum on the treaty.
De Haagse Tribune is successfully running for the second year now. It has been developed especially for secondary schools. Each day two or three classes from across the country visit The Hague to participate in this project. During the day they become in an active and involved way familiar with the Dutch political system, the constitutional monarchy.
Already since the 1990s the IPP has been successfully implementing the project ‘Find your way in local government’ in the Netherlands. At the moment every year 2000 pupils from 40 Dutch municipalities participate in the project. The goal is to give young people aged 14-19 years old the conditions and the opportunities to acquire skills necessary for taking an active part in local democratic decision-making processes.
June 2009 elections will be on the European Parliament in each of the 27 member states of the European Union. In 2004 the first European VoteMatch was launched, by answering 30 statements with ‘agree’, ‘don’t agree’ or ‘don’t know’ one could see what European party or fraction most met ones political preference. The European VoteMatch is still online at www.votematch.eu.
The European VoteMatch was modelled after the StemWijzer, the very successful political preference test in the Netherlands, developed over the past fifteen years into the most used internet site in election times, reaching more than 4.7 mln. users at the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, November 2006.