Citizenship and Participation / Themes / Politeia

Citizenship and Participation

VoteMatch Europe 2009 - The political preference test on the European elections in all EU-Member states

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.

The integration of the Roma community in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands: problems and solutions

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 Political Representation of the Roma Minority in Bulgaria: (1990-2005)

The debate over the proper form of minority rights in the post-communist world has intensified significantly over the last decade. The representation of ethnic minorities in the political process is one of the components of minority protection. Minority representation can take various and diverse forms. Minorities can have their own representatives in the legislative institutions at both national and regional level; they can have minority “experts” in various consultative bodies to the government; alternatively, minorities can also be given a right to self-government. Achieving legislative representation can also be done in several ways – minorities can participate in the political process through non-minority specific parties or they can try to form their own parties and achieve representation along ethnic lines.

A national Deliberative Poll® on policies towards the Roma in Bulgaria

The Roma minority in Bulgaria is experiencing the type of problems which are typical for this minority in many other countries. Generally, the Roma are less educated, less healthy, and less employed than other ethnic groups in the country. They are also poorer, with higher levels of criminal activity. Significant groups tend to live in ghettoes without proper housing and living conditions. They are heavily discriminated against, and their human rights are regularly subject to violation. The Roma are the second largest minority group in Bulgaria after the Turks, but in contrast to the Turkish minority they remain outside of the political process and enjoy very poor political representation.

Politeia partners facilitate the European Citizens Consultations

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.

The ECC in Bulgaria

29 March 2007

Bulgaria joined the European Citizens’ Consultations upon accession to the EU on January 1, 2007. That is why there were no Bulgarian participants at the ECC Agenda setting event in October 2006. The National Citizens’ Consultation in Bulgaria took place on February 10-11 2007 in Sofia. The event was organized by the Centre for Liberal Strategies and the Alpha Research Agency. The CLS and Alpha Research organized back in 2003 the first deliberative poll in Central and Eastern Europe on organized crime. At present, they are in the final stage of the second deliberative poll in Bulgaria on the situation of the Roma minority (April 13-15 2007). The deliberative dimension of the ECC initiative was of special interest for the organizers.

65 participants with just six weeks of experience as EU citizens discussed for two days the three topics agreed upon by 200 citizens from the EU 25 back in 2006: Energy & Environment; Family & Social Welfare; EU’s Global Role & Immigration.

The (im-)possibilities of a European citizenship

To what extent is it possible for a true European citizenship to arise according to academics? This essay tries to give a short overview of recent scholarly debate on this issue and concludes that not all is lost.

The role of NGOs in education for democratic citizenship

From the 21st till the 24th of April, a conference took place on the role of NGOs in education for democratic citizenship in Warsaw, Poland. The main aim of the conference was to exchange successful project experiences and innovative practices in the field of democratic citizenship and human rights education. Ruud Veldhuis draws conclusions from the event.

Towards a new EU-program for active European citizenship

In April 2005 the European Commission adopted the proposal for a new program ‘Citizens for Europe’ 2007-2013 to promote active European citizenship. This program will take over the current program coming to an end in 2006. With the new program, the European Commission wishes to contribute to a major challenge of the European Union, namely how to bridge the gap between citizens and the European Union.

European Charter of Active Citizenship; a common ground for civic activism

Since June 2005, the Active Citizenship Network – the European program of the Italian citizens’ organisation Cittadinanzattiva - and the Active Citizenship Foundation have been implementing a project aiming at improving the European and national policies on civic activism by involving civic organizations in the discussion and definition of the rights and duties of civic participation. The main objective of the project is to draft and promote a European Charter of Active Citizenship based on the practical and theoretical knowledge of civic organizations.

Worker participation in a globalised world

The rejection of the EU Constitution in France and the Netherlands was not only a clear reaction against the pace of integration and enlargement, which was rushed and poorly communicated. The disastrous ‘No’ vote also shows that the usual silent acquiescence and the traditional reasons for that acquiescence (peace, prosperity, security) have faded away. Not only did Europe’s so-called political elite recognise this fact too late, but it also failed to provide any justifications other than the repetition of known truths. If European enlargement and globalisation create uncertainty above all else, then the European Union and the Constitution in particular are unable to provide convincing answers.