International Conference about European Citizens' Initiative on May 6 and 7
The 2011 European Citizens' Initiative Summit brings together the key stakeholders from civil society, politics, media, administration and academia from across Europe to assess:
- the remaining days of procedural fine-tuning, including issues related to the identification and verification requirements as well as the e-platform for the ECI
- the preliminary ideas and ongoing projects which will shape the first European Initiative cycle before the procedures are revised in 2015/2016
- contributions to the supportive infrastructure, which will be critical for making the ECI a truly pan-European and citizen-friendly tool - including a shared back office called the “European Citizens' Initiative Office”
- and finally, the bigger picture of participatory democracy enshrined in Articles 10.3 and 11 of the Treaty of the EU: how to follow up the strengthened requirements for information, consultation and dialogue between the EU institutions and civil society
The European Citizens' Initiative is the key part of a comprehensive citizens' participatory package established by the Lisbon Treaty. What happens to the other participatory democracy tools in the reaty? Modern direct democracy is an integral part of representative government. The European Citizens' Initiative is just a first step at the transnational level, which is already being complemented by proposals and discussion on how to establish us the citizens also as decision-makers, for example by having pan-European popular votes on substantives issues (“referendums”).
Time:
Friday, May 6 2011, 9:00-19:00
Saturday, May 7 2011, 9:30-13:30
Venue:
Bundesministerium für Inneres, Großer Vortragssaal, Minoritenplatz 9, 1010 Wien
Lageplan
Organized by:
Austrian Institute for European Law and Policy
The Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe
Registration
Programme: Download
DAY 1: Friday, May 6
9.00 Registration and Coffee
10.00 Opening Address: ECI Job done? – Challenges ahead!
Objectives of the conference: Professor Johannes W. Pichler, Director of the Austrian Institute for European Law and Policy
10.30 CHAPTER I: ECI in Law
featuring: Open Questions; Fine-tuning Efforts; Optimizing Potential; Supporting Plans; Preparatory Steps
Introduced and Chaired by Bruno Kaufmann, President, The Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe (IRIE)
10.45 Panel I: Institutional Actors
- Commission: Dr. Mario Tenreiro, Head of Unit DG Institutional Affairs
- EU Parliament: MEP Dr. Zita Gurmai, Rapporteur AFCO
- EESC: Dr. Anne-Marie Sigmund, Past President, ECI Rapporteur
- Council and Member States: Mag. Robert Stein, Ministry of the Interior - Head of Department of Electoral Affairs
11.45 Discussion
12.30 Lunch at the Venue
13.30 Panel II: Non-governmental Actors
- ECAS: Tony Venables
- IRI Europe: Nils Ehlers
- Research Network: Dr. Tamara Ehs
- Democracy International: Carsten Berg, Director ECI Campaign
- Balkan Assist: Dr. Atanas Slavov and Vladimira Tsvetkova
CHAPTER II ECI in Action
14.30 Panel III: Initiative Actors
- GMO III: Greenpeace
- Eliant: Dr. Andreas Biesantz
- Free Sunday: MEP Martin Kastler
- More Democracy: Daniel Schily, Democracy International / Erwin Leitner, more democracy! Austria
15.30 Coffee Break
16.00 ECI framework challenges: Inputs and Thoughts
Introduced and Chaired by Professor Theo Schiller, Chairman, The Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe
- 16.10 The ECI Back Office - Towards a supportive infrastructure for the supportive infrastructure: Bruno Kaufmann
- 16.25 Activating the Activists - A Practitioner‟s Guide to a successful ECI: Carsten Berg
- 16.40 Happy Losers? Provisions and support for ECIs and ECI and other forms of participation who cannot reach the given requirements: Johannes W. Pichler
- 17.00 Discussion
- 18.00 Wrapping-Up and Outlook Day 1: Gerald Häfner, MEP
19.00 Reception given by the Austrian Federal Chancellery
DAY 2: Saturday, May 7
09.30 CHAPTER III ECI in the making and beyond: Reflections, Reactions, Considerations From Participation to Communication and back
Introduced and Chaired by Anne-Marie Sigmund
- 09.35 Re-Inventing Ideas and Approaches to Pan-European Direct Democracy. Mak-ing Use of Dreamt Dreams – from De Gaulle to Juncker and…: Dr. Arnold Kammel, Secretary General of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy
- 09.45 ECI – An instrument rather of deliberative than of participatory democracy?: Dr. Alexander Balthasar, Federal Chancellery and Austrian Institute for Euro-pean Law and Policy
- 10.00 The TEU´s/Citizens´ Participatory Democracy´s “Holistic“ Architecture be-yond the ECI under Art 11.4 TEU - from Art 10.3 to Art 11.1&2&3: Johannes W. Pichler
10.15 Panel IV: Making the ECI a democratic success. Inputs by the summit co-organizers
Expectations – too high or too low? Transnational agenda-setting power for citizens – first or last step? How to help the citizens in their new responsibility?
Introduced and chaired by Martin Bühler, Secretary General, The Initiative and Referendum Institute :
- Representative Richard Kühnel, MA – European Commission
- Director General Dr. Harald Dossi – Austrian Federal Chancellery
- Yvonne Toncic-Sorinj, Director for General EU Matters and EU Institutions – Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs
- Professor Alina-Maria Lengauer, LLM – Vice Director to the Departement of Eu-ropean, International and Comparative Law at the University of Vienna
- Paul Schmidt, MA, Secretary General – Austrian Society for European Politics
- Professor Heinrich Neisser – President to European Movement Austria
11.15 Coffee Break
11.30 Final Discussion
12.30 Panel V: Political Considerations. Viewpoints by Representatives of Political Parties
Supportive Macroclimate? Rush of ECI´s? Your Personal Forecast on the ECI‟s Power to Impact European Politics and Policies?
Introduced and chaired by Johannes W. Pichler
- MP Kai Jan Krainer
- MP Daniela Musiol, MA
- Dr. Werner Fasslabend, Former Deputy President of the Austrian National Council
13.30 Close of the Conference
Reception at the Venue |
