I don’t know about you but I never
really believed in democracy in fact
there is something rotten in the state
of our representative democracy who can
you trust
the career-minded politician or the
biased and disengaged citizen but can
you blame them
no the system has made us sue elections
and referendums are the essence of our
representative democracy today so with
elections every five years
no wonder the politician gets antsy
about his future
no wonder the the citizen disengages the
rest of the time and it’s not a surprise
either that referendums our recipe for
disaster so in 2012 when Francois a
friend from university came to me and
asked me what do I think about the
European citizens initiative the
optimist in me bursted out this can be a
revolution for democracy in Europe this
can be the beginning for participatory
democracy in Europe let me just pause
here so as you know as an alumni of the
College of Europe here naturally I think
that everyone here in the rooms know
what European citizens initiative is
right so for all those out there in
there on the web and online who want a
little explanation still in 2012 the EU
put in place a tool that allows all
citizens to propose laws in Europe this
was a novelty until then only the
European Commission was allowed to
propose laws in fact even today not even
the European Parliament the only
democratically elected body has this
right to initiative so it’s quite
something but there’s no free lunch as
you know and in fact this thing also
comes with terms and conditions in facts
so first to propose an initiative you
need to be seven different
also you need to live in seven different
European countries
good luck with that then you need to get
1 million signatures in one year and by
the way you also need to have a quota of
signatures per country’s in that seven
countries minimum oh and by the way the
European Commission has the right to
veto your initiative at any time before
it gets to the vote in the European
Parliament in other words designed to be
impossible for citizens like you and me
but that was exactly why we wanted to do
something about it that’s what’s exactly
why we had to make it accessible to
citizens on the parallel I was engaging
my or finishing my fifth year in
European studies soon six year and I was
beginning to feel a little bit
disenchanted by the European
institutions and the European in me was
asking what can I possibly do how can I
help you to build and be continued to be
constructed without being inside the
walls so I didn’t hesitate one moment to
start this I just had to do it it was a
gut feeling so we took on the adventure
I would call it to start this platform
it would be a unique platform to allow
all the European citizens initiative to
be on one platform visible to one each
other which would help them get more
signatures and in that way we we would
also support them in signal we will also
support them in legal advice as well as
online campaigning so participatory
democracy here we come or not because
apart from the usual stumbling blocks to
meet as a first-time entrepreneur we
also discovered that there were much
larger problems for the European
citizens initiative to become a
participatory democracy tool first the
number of citizens initiatives in fact
remained very very low so at our prime
time we had nine citizens
initiative of our on our platform since
then today there has been 28 citizens
initiative who’s seen the light only
three of them succeeded and 14 of them
were withdrawn by the organizers the
rest didn’t acquire the signatures they
needed so at this pace it was quite
difficult to reach that level the
traction you needed to have one platform
going to help them all second obstacle
the organizers had realized the ones who
succeeded were quite different than what
we had expected it wasn’t the usual kind
of it wasn’t the usual citizen like you
and me
in fact the three or the three
initiative that succeeded were all
organized by organizations or
associations who were for a long time
working on that cause in that way they
could use their working time to campaign
and they could also use their budget to
provide the campaigning in fact
organizing a European citizens
initiative is a full-time job so there
are a couple of normal citizens like you
me who really tried to do it themselves
well there was a really tough time and
as soon as they registered the
initiative the 12 months would be gone
in a snap and we couldn’t even help them
at that stage so on another hand well
they tried really hard and we we helped
them as much as we could but you just
had to have their big organisation
behind you a third obstacle was the
procedures okay I’m not gonna share the
whole frustration the procedures have
brought me but this is something all
organizers of European citizens
initiative have felt but in specially
the the signature online signature
collections will was
impossible it was really something from
the 90s you would expect now nowadays to
have just one platform you can click
sign and then you would have signed this
online you would have signed a citizen’s
initiative but no you had to enter
information you had to be sure that it
was off authenticated with your Member
State and then back to the European
Commission it was a mess
and finally one very big obstacle which
was kind of the inherent problem it was
that we didn’t really find interest with
the citizens at that point we were in an
incubator with Avaz which is a petition
platform and and so we shared some
experience with them and we very fast
learned that in order to engage citizens
you need to really romanticize an issue
and of course that’s fine that’s what
you call storytelling that’s what
happens all the time but there comes a
point where you’re romanticizing the
topic so much that you’re thinking for a
law is this really what I have to do to
create interest from citizens is this
really what I want to do shouldn’t the
interest just not live with them
automatically it was frustrating
so obstacle after obstacle it became
more and more clear to me that the
European citizens initiative is not a
participatory democracy tool it was
bound to become a mobilization tool at
European level for organizations and
causes I would call it institutionalized
activism it was a way to engage citizens
at European level all while keeping them
on Cerrito well don’t get me wrong
activism is important and it’s needed
more than ever
however we grow up being taught to be
reactive not to be proactive let me get
back to that example of
the elections every five years that
creates the citizen who’s tested in
pegasus armchair and and every five
years he will go to vote and according
to the system as soon as he has done
that he will have done his civic duty so
he’s good he has no more to do if he
feels want to feel really good about
himself well he can engage in some
clicktivism and sign one or two
petitions not at European citizens
initiative though that’s too complex so
unless we’re taught otherwise we won’t
engage more and we won’t engage
differently I’m a cop of I’m of course
exaggerating my point to make the points
and a rising number of citizens are also
engaging differently in hacktivism
sittings marches and this is great but
we are still reactive our representative
democracy is what I call a reactive
democracy because we need a legitimate
space to be proactive the European
citizens initiative could have been such
a legitimate legitimate space to be
proactive at European level but it
failed it failed for various reasons but
in my opinion it failed because it
didn’t have a raison d’etre
I have come to believe that
participatory democracy it’s not
necessarily needed nor efficient at EU
level maybe not even at national level
the exception of course would be
Switzerland who’s managed to do that
well but we would need to change our
whole political system to get there so
let’s not try but then would need a
revolution instead others start-ups and
other initiatives have managed to create
a participatory democracy at local level
at regional level in cities and it looks
more and more like participatory
democracy to me and for me this is
exciting I feel that I can begin to
believe in our democracy again
in fact if I were to do all this over
again these will be my three rolls of
tongue one the space where citizens can
engage and be proactive it needs to be
created by the citizens so that they
have this sense of ownership second it
must be created at a level where their
interests are close to the hearts so
this is very often at local regional
city level on their streets but it’s
very difficult to create that at EU
level because they’re the topics are
technical they’re lengthy and don’t get
me started and third it must be an
interaction with a public authority to
legitimize the whole thing so to
contradict Frank Underwood democracy is
not overrated we simply need to seize it
thank you
[Applause]
really believed in democracy in fact
there is something rotten in the state
of our representative democracy who can
you trust
the career-minded politician or the
biased and disengaged citizen but can
you blame them
no the system has made us sue elections
and referendums are the essence of our
representative democracy today so with
elections every five years
no wonder the politician gets antsy
about his future
no wonder the the citizen disengages the
rest of the time and it’s not a surprise
either that referendums our recipe for
disaster so in 2012 when Francois a
friend from university came to me and
asked me what do I think about the
European citizens initiative the
optimist in me bursted out this can be a
revolution for democracy in Europe this
can be the beginning for participatory
democracy in Europe let me just pause
here so as you know as an alumni of the
College of Europe here naturally I think
that everyone here in the rooms know
what European citizens initiative is
right so for all those out there in
there on the web and online who want a
little explanation still in 2012 the EU
put in place a tool that allows all
citizens to propose laws in Europe this
was a novelty until then only the
European Commission was allowed to
propose laws in fact even today not even
the European Parliament the only
democratically elected body has this
right to initiative so it’s quite
something but there’s no free lunch as
you know and in fact this thing also
comes with terms and conditions in facts
so first to propose an initiative you
need to be seven different
also you need to live in seven different
European countries
good luck with that then you need to get
1 million signatures in one year and by
the way you also need to have a quota of
signatures per country’s in that seven
countries minimum oh and by the way the
European Commission has the right to
veto your initiative at any time before
it gets to the vote in the European
Parliament in other words designed to be
impossible for citizens like you and me
but that was exactly why we wanted to do
something about it that’s what’s exactly
why we had to make it accessible to
citizens on the parallel I was engaging
my or finishing my fifth year in
European studies soon six year and I was
beginning to feel a little bit
disenchanted by the European
institutions and the European in me was
asking what can I possibly do how can I
help you to build and be continued to be
constructed without being inside the
walls so I didn’t hesitate one moment to
start this I just had to do it it was a
gut feeling so we took on the adventure
I would call it to start this platform
it would be a unique platform to allow
all the European citizens initiative to
be on one platform visible to one each
other which would help them get more
signatures and in that way we we would
also support them in signal we will also
support them in legal advice as well as
online campaigning so participatory
democracy here we come or not because
apart from the usual stumbling blocks to
meet as a first-time entrepreneur we
also discovered that there were much
larger problems for the European
citizens initiative to become a
participatory democracy tool first the
number of citizens initiatives in fact
remained very very low so at our prime
time we had nine citizens
initiative of our on our platform since
then today there has been 28 citizens
initiative who’s seen the light only
three of them succeeded and 14 of them
were withdrawn by the organizers the
rest didn’t acquire the signatures they
needed so at this pace it was quite
difficult to reach that level the
traction you needed to have one platform
going to help them all second obstacle
the organizers had realized the ones who
succeeded were quite different than what
we had expected it wasn’t the usual kind
of it wasn’t the usual citizen like you
and me
in fact the three or the three
initiative that succeeded were all
organized by organizations or
associations who were for a long time
working on that cause in that way they
could use their working time to campaign
and they could also use their budget to
provide the campaigning in fact
organizing a European citizens
initiative is a full-time job so there
are a couple of normal citizens like you
me who really tried to do it themselves
well there was a really tough time and
as soon as they registered the
initiative the 12 months would be gone
in a snap and we couldn’t even help them
at that stage so on another hand well
they tried really hard and we we helped
them as much as we could but you just
had to have their big organisation
behind you a third obstacle was the
procedures okay I’m not gonna share the
whole frustration the procedures have
brought me but this is something all
organizers of European citizens
initiative have felt but in specially
the the signature online signature
collections will was
impossible it was really something from
the 90s you would expect now nowadays to
have just one platform you can click
sign and then you would have signed this
online you would have signed a citizen’s
initiative but no you had to enter
information you had to be sure that it
was off authenticated with your Member
State and then back to the European
Commission it was a mess
and finally one very big obstacle which
was kind of the inherent problem it was
that we didn’t really find interest with
the citizens at that point we were in an
incubator with Avaz which is a petition
platform and and so we shared some
experience with them and we very fast
learned that in order to engage citizens
you need to really romanticize an issue
and of course that’s fine that’s what
you call storytelling that’s what
happens all the time but there comes a
point where you’re romanticizing the
topic so much that you’re thinking for a
law is this really what I have to do to
create interest from citizens is this
really what I want to do shouldn’t the
interest just not live with them
automatically it was frustrating
so obstacle after obstacle it became
more and more clear to me that the
European citizens initiative is not a
participatory democracy tool it was
bound to become a mobilization tool at
European level for organizations and
causes I would call it institutionalized
activism it was a way to engage citizens
at European level all while keeping them
on Cerrito well don’t get me wrong
activism is important and it’s needed
more than ever
however we grow up being taught to be
reactive not to be proactive let me get
back to that example of
the elections every five years that
creates the citizen who’s tested in
pegasus armchair and and every five
years he will go to vote and according
to the system as soon as he has done
that he will have done his civic duty so
he’s good he has no more to do if he
feels want to feel really good about
himself well he can engage in some
clicktivism and sign one or two
petitions not at European citizens
initiative though that’s too complex so
unless we’re taught otherwise we won’t
engage more and we won’t engage
differently I’m a cop of I’m of course
exaggerating my point to make the points
and a rising number of citizens are also
engaging differently in hacktivism
sittings marches and this is great but
we are still reactive our representative
democracy is what I call a reactive
democracy because we need a legitimate
space to be proactive the European
citizens initiative could have been such
a legitimate legitimate space to be
proactive at European level but it
failed it failed for various reasons but
in my opinion it failed because it
didn’t have a raison d’etre
I have come to believe that
participatory democracy it’s not
necessarily needed nor efficient at EU
level maybe not even at national level
the exception of course would be
Switzerland who’s managed to do that
well but we would need to change our
whole political system to get there so
let’s not try but then would need a
revolution instead others start-ups and
other initiatives have managed to create
a participatory democracy at local level
at regional level in cities and it looks
more and more like participatory
democracy to me and for me this is
exciting I feel that I can begin to
believe in our democracy again
in fact if I were to do all this over
again these will be my three rolls of
tongue one the space where citizens can
engage and be proactive it needs to be
created by the citizens so that they
have this sense of ownership second it
must be created at a level where their
interests are close to the hearts so
this is very often at local regional
city level on their streets but it’s
very difficult to create that at EU
level because they’re the topics are
technical they’re lengthy and don’t get
me started and third it must be an
interaction with a public authority to
legitimize the whole thing so to
contradict Frank Underwood democracy is
not overrated we simply need to seize it
thank you
[Applause]
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