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Foundation on European Citizens’ Rights, Involvement and Trust

ECIT Foundation

The ECIT Foundation (Foundation on European Citizens’ Rights, Involvement and Trust) is a Brussels-based public foundation established under Belgian law on 3 June 2015 to work exclusively on topics pertaining to European citizenship.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Vice-President) and

6 Jul 2023 · Defence of Democracy

Response to EU Citizenship Report 2023

18 Jun 2023

I have a question about the process. DG Justice states that it will consult widely with other Commission departments before producing the 2023 citizenship report. Does this mean that there will not be a public consultation? For previous citizenship reports enough time has been given to collecting a significant number of replies to a detailed questionnaire about barriers to the exercise of European rights and suggestions for the future. Consultations have also been well publicised. Should not this be done for the 2023 report , especially given: -the impact of the two years of pandemic on European rights to freedom of movement ; -the proposals backed by the Conference on the future of Europe and the European Parliament for a statute on European citizenship; -the significance of the timing with the 30th anniversary of Union citizenship and the run-up to the the European elections Thanks to support by the European Ombudsman public consultations have been long since established for the tri-annual citizenship report under Article 25 TFEU. For information about ECIT activity and our annual conference on 31 October where the latest version of our proposals for a statute will be debated please go to our website: http://ecit-foundation.eu The draft AFCO report on "parliamentarianism, European citizenship and democracy" also raises multiple questions about which there should be public consultation. Hopefully the Commission will either confirm that this is a misunderstanding or change its mind and confirm that there will be a full-scale public consultation
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Meeting with Didier Reynders (Commissioner) and

24 Apr 2023 · Defence of democracy

Meeting with Victor Negrescu (Member of the European Parliament) and Lifelong Learning Platform and EUMANS

22 Mar 2023 · Citizenship education

Meeting with Victor Negrescu (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Feb 2023 · Citizenship education

Meeting with Ciarán Cuffe (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Oct 2021 · Carbon Pricing and COP26

Meeting with Toma Šutić (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica) and Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven

3 Jun 2021 · meeting on citizenship education

Response to EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024

6 Feb 2020

The previous EU Action Plan for Human Rights and Democracy covering the period 2015 - 2019 focused strongly on the human rights component and unfortunately very little on the democracy component. Rebalancing between these two causes is needed (a) externally and (b) internally. (a) The EU external action of democratic promotion competes with its other objective to assure security globally by bolstering third states’ resilience and, to that aim, practicing principled pragmatism with non-democratic states and stability regionally, in its immediate neighborhood in candidate and associate countries. Here I refer mostly to what commentators in the academia and practice alike have called the dilemma between democratization and stability and which has prompted some authors, like Bieber, for example, in the case of Western Balkans, to speak of ‘stabilitocracy’ which underlines EU-partner relations (Bieber et al. 2017). Others infer the dominance of the security–stability nexus in EU democracy promotion in EU democracy exporting efforts (e.g. Dandashly 2018; Voltolini 2018). It occurs when the EU prefers brokering deals with non-or-semi-democratic incumbent elites in order to secure stability in the countries in question. The EU cannot afford to lose its credibility by failing to promote democracy efficiently because stability under regimes with dubious democratic credentials is a slippery slope. (b) How can we envisage strengthening the EU's leading role in the promotion and protection of human rights and democracy in the world if this issue is not taken more seriously within the EU itself? To this end, we are convinced that a first effort must be made regarding European citizenship. This first form of transnational citizenship is a fantastic concept which should be constantly promoted. What could be more symbolic than this European citizenship which gives a concrete expression to what the European Union represents? Yet, it still suffers from many shortcomings, especially for mobile citizens. The problem is that democratic participation is still seen through national eyes and has not caught up with increasing transnational activity. People living in other Member States feel unrepresented in politics. This is not surprising since they are only given the right to stand and vote in municipal and European elections in their country of residence and are underusing these rights because they are excluded from the elections and democratic choices which really count and still made to feel more like foreigners than full members of the community. This reply sets out therefore to put right a democratic wrong for good reasons: To make European citizenship a real citizenship. Political rights are the defining feature of any citizenship and the means by which rights can be represented and extended. Leaving an increasing number of people with only partial political rights is inconsistent. The European Court has repeatedly declared: “Union citizenship is destined to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States, enabling those who find themselves in the same situation to enjoy the same treatment in law...” To take a step towards universal suffrage. EU citizens like other migrants are for the most part in work contributing with their taxes, sending their children to the same schools and using the same services, as their national neighbours. Giving them full political rights would be consistent with the ban under EU law of any discrimination on the grounds of nationality and the principles of no taxation without representation and one person, one vote. As the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stated in its judgment of 7 May 2013 Schindler v the UK: “The right to vote is not a privilege. In the twenty-first century, the presumption in a democratic state must be in favour of its inclusion.” Although over the last generation many referenda have been on European issues, EU citizens are generally excluded.
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