Citizens Take Over Europe

The problem
Our leaders do not have the common political will to ensure that citizens and residents of Europe are at the centre of the conversation about the future of Europe. And not only that. Very few are supportive of a self-organized, participatory process to realise the Europe we want: a Europe that cares and is taken care of. The European Commission proposed to launch the Conference on the Future of Europe on 9th May with the aim of “taking the most effective actions, with the other EU institutions, to integrate citizens' ideas and feedback into EU policy-making.” Very little information is available on how the Conference will actually be run and moderated, and, more importantly, how their conclusions will feed into the work and final conclusions and more importantly how feedback between decision-makers and citizens participating in the assemblies actually takes place, and how disagreements are resolved. In this approach citizens are not involved in agenda setting, that is why we need a Citizens Take Over of Europe.

This Europe Day, citizens must take the lead!
Our coalition has been meeting through a series of online meetings to organize and raise awareness of the status quo and make a proposal to all citizens and residents of Europe.
On the 9th of May, Europe Day, we are organizing to reclaim an open space to discuss current problems and co-develop solutions from a political, social and personal perspective. What are our concerns and our most urgent problems? What is the current meaning of crisis and what solutions can citizens propose and implement? How do we organize solidarity among Europeans and with the rest of the world? This Europe Day, citizens must take the lead, share stories about how people are taking care of each other and trying to make things better right now – and using this as a blueprint for another Europe, a Europe that cares.

The proposal
The Citizens Take Over Europe coalition has been reflecting on and designing a long-term process for a self-organised European Citizens Assembly to take place over the coming 2 years, in which people can have their say about our present and future, and ensure that citizens and civil society participation is at the heart of all new initiatives for the future of Europe. We need to introduce a fundamental and bottom-up energy to reimagine our relation to Europe at a moment when top-down governance is threatening the idea of European solidarity and risks dividing our societies even further.

Our coalition, and citizens all over Europe, have multiplied petitions, open letters and projects through the financial, migration and health crises: now it must come together in an unprecedented way and take over Europe, launching our own process for the Future of Europe, amplifying often unheard and marginalised voices, which institutions and governments cannot ignore. We need our own European Citizens Assembly: a transnational assembly able to summon the vision and ambition that our leaders are dramatically failing to show.

Our goal is to get the necessary resources to fund an ambitious process of decision making by the citizens for the citizens, for the future that we want for Europe. Not only would a citizens assembly bring decision making where it belongs, it will motivate and energize us to come together as Europeans. The same energy we brought during the Covid-19 crisis when we sang for each other on our balconies or clapped our hands together for care workers.

Would you help us all to reach that goal?

This is now the moment to act. All too often, our governments fall into the fragmenting currents that threaten the European project. The Covid-19 crisis is revealing this fragmentation in political decision making, which directly impacts the lives of our communities and confirms to us the fundamental importance of organizing transnational solidarity at all levels. No nation-state alone can control cross-border phenomena such as climate change, migration or the recent coronavirus pandemic.

Conference needs the support of all of us, if we want to fight against fragmentation and make sure we have a Europe that cares for all of us. We want positive and fundamental change in Europe, where citizens support each other, no matter their nationality or migration status. What we want is a Europe of Citizens where citizens and residents of Europe decide about their future. We want to demonstrate what kind of Europe we want. This is the kick-off – time and space to shape the future. By everyday people like us. Citizens and civil society organisations from across the EU are invited to contribute to the process of agenda-setting.

Would you join us?

We, the Citizens Take Over Europe coalition, want to be transparent about how we will use your money. If our proposal is successfully funded, your donation will be directly going to a fund supporting the Citizens Take Over Europe coalition’s mandate to design, support and promote a European Citizens Assembly, in particular costs for the process design, technical platform, communications.

All our organizations are nonprofit organizations and all donations will be used solely to support the long-term process of setting up a European Citizens Assembly.