Call for mobilisation launched in 17 major European media outlets
The CIVICO Europa movement, together with the civic tech MAKE.ORG and many well-known Europeans, is launching a non-partisan civilian campaign in the 28 member states of the European Union to mobilise citizens and empower them to take back control of the European project: WeEuropeans.
This call for mobilisation was launched in major European media outlets: Euractiv, Libération, Ouest France and Konbini in France, Der Tagesspiegel in Germany, El País in Spain, Le Soir in Belgium, Tageblatt in Luxemburg, La Stampa in Italy, Delo in Slovenia, Népszava in Hungary, I Kathimerini in Greece, Joob in The Netherlands, Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland, Postimees in Estonia, Adevărul in Romania, Capital in Bulgaria and Die Press in Austria.
On 22nd March 2019, a Congress of Europeans will take place in the European Parliament, home of the Union’s citizens.
Citizens from all walks of life, including artists and people who work in education, culture, science, business, labour and the media, will meet in this transnational forum to share a civic agenda resulting from the biggest public European consultation ever undertaken.
This agenda, to be adopted in the presence of representatives of different political families who are there to listen to their constituents, will then be disseminated through a vast mobilisation campaign in all countries of the European Union.
It will be submitted to all candidates in the European elections and to the Heads of State and Government at the European Council meeting in Sibiu on 9th May on the future of the Union. We will invite political leaders to react to our fellow citizens’ common worries and to decide whether or not to integrate them into their election campaigns.
For us, this method constitutes the only very broad participatory approach capable of opening the way to a democratic revival of the European project, which we believe is the most important democratic project of our time.
Never have the Union’s citizens’ levels of expectation about Europe been so high since the beginning of the crises. Citizens want a Union that responds to their needs and has a concrete and positive impact in their daily lives. More than ever, they believe European solutions are needed to respond to the great challenges of our time that none of our countries can address on its own.
We want a Europe that protects us and defends our values and our interests in the world. A Europe that takes the lead in the fight against climate change and the battle for sustainable development, and that encourages digital innovation in the service of its citizens.
A Europe that develops a common and dignified migration policy that guarantees the security of our borders. A Europe that promotes peace, democracy, social justice and economic prosperity.
Today, however, while citizens desire more unity and efficacy, they doubt the capacity and political courage of European states to continue progressing together and to create the conditions for a positive future for all. They feel they no longer have control of their future, and are being written out of their own history in a deeply changing and worrisome world.
Everywhere, crises are generating inward-looking responses and a search for scapegoats. Solidarity among States, the historical foundation of our Union, is being sorely tested. Precisely when we most need to work together, a mistrust of European institutions is taking hold.
This doubt is amplified by the silence of political leaders, their lack of shared vision, the fake news on social networks and the omnipresence of extremist forces in the media, often supported by foreign activists, who set citizens against peoples.
In this context, the European parliamentary elections of May 2019 will be very different from previous ones: They oblige us to recognize the uncompromising truth and to achieve an unprecedented democratic leap. We must regain our self-confidence and give soul to our Union that too often is reduced to a technocracy imprisoned by the intergovernmental method.
We, citizens of the Union, of all opinions and origins, we Europeans, believe it is first of all we who are Europe and we who make Europe – and that people must be reminded of this fact.
This is why we call all European citizens to join us in writing together a new positive and democratic page in our common history, and to pressure our representatives to assume their responsibilities and give themselves the means to bring real solutions to the challenges we face.
May all who wish to join us do so without delay at WeEuropeans.eu.
The civic momentum we seek to build supersedes partisan divides and national silos. We need each of you to support our common cause.
Europeans, let us together take back control of our future!
Co-signatories are coordinated by CIVICO Guillaume Klossa and President Francesca Ratti. They include more than 100 politicians, NGO leaders, artists and entrepreneurs (including EURACTIV’s founder Christophe Leclercq)
Source: EurActiv
Signatories of the Op-Ed
- Guillaume Klossa (FR), CIVICO Europa Initiator and CoPresident,
Author, founder of EuropaNova; - Axel Dauchez (FR), CEO and Founder of Make.org;
- Alberto Alemanno (IT), Law Professor,
- Founder of the Good Lobby; László Andor (HU), Economist, for-mer European Commissioner;
- Pilar Antelo (ES), Former President of the European Parliament Staff Committee and of the SFIE-EP Trade Union;
- Jean Arthuis (FR), Chair of the Committee on Bud-gets, European Parliament;
- Lionel Baier (CH), Film maker;
- Pedro Bacelar de Vasconcelos (PT), Member of Parliament, Presidentof the Constitutional Commission;
- Miklós Barabás (HU), Directorof the House of Europe, Budapest;
- Enrique Baron Crespo (ES), former President of the European Parliament;
- Mars Di Barto-lomeo (LU), President of the Luxembourg Parliament; Sébastien Bazin, Chairman & CEO AccorHotels;
- Jerôme Bédier (FR), Corpo-rate Manager;
- Stavros Benos (EL), President of Diazoma association, former Minister;
- Laurent Berger (FR), Secretary General of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT);
- Brando Benifei (IT), Member of the European Parliament;
- Anna Bonaiuto (IT), Actress;
- Jean-Laurent Bonnafé (FR), CEO of BNP Paribas;
- Sylvain Bonnet (FR), Corporate executive;
- Ghislain Boula de Mareuil (FR), Lawyer;
- Franziska Brantner (DE), Member of the Bundestag;
- Mercedes Bresso (IT), Member of the European Parliament, former President of the European Committee of the Re-gions;
- Elmar Brok (DE), Member of the European Parliament, former President of the Foreign Affairs Committee;
- Fabienne Brugère (FR), philosopher;
- Philippe de Buck (BE), former General
- Guillaume Klossa (FR), CIVICO Europa Co-President, Corporate manager, Writer, and former Sherpa of the Reflection Group on the Future of Europe (European Council)
- Axel Dauchez (FR), CEO and Founder of MAKE.ORG Director of BusinessEurope, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee;
- Sebastian Burduja (RO), Business entrepreneur, Founding President of PACT for Romania;
- Massimo Cacciari (IT), Philosopher, former Mayor of Venice and former Member of the European Parliament;
- Alicia Combaz (FR), General Manager and Co-Founder of MAKE.ORG;
- Daniel Cohn-Bendit (FR/DE), former President of the « Greens » group, European Parliament;
- Silvia Costa (IT), Member of the European Parliament;
- Costa-Gavras (EL), Film Director and Producer;
- Georgios Dassis (EL), former President of the European Economic and Social Committee;
- Virgilio Dastoli (IT), President of the Italian European Mouvement;
- Tremeur Denigot (FR), Director of Communications, CIVICO Europa;
- Kathrin Deventer (DE), Secretary General of the European Festivals Association (EFA) and Co-director of Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe (EFFE);
- Paul Dujardin (BE), General Director of BOZAR;
- Pascal Durand (FR), Member of the European Parliament,
- Isabelle Durant (BE), former Vice Prime Minister, Deputy Secretary General of the UNCTAD;
- Emmanuel Faber (FR), CEO of Danone;
- Michele Fiorillo (IT), Philosopher, Coordinator of CIVICO Europa network;
- Cynthia Fleury (FR), Philosopher and psychoanalyst;
- Markus Gabriel (DE), Philosopher;
- Christophe Galfard (FR), Astrophysicist,
- Writer; Marco Ghetti (IT), President of the civic movement «Per l’Italia con l’Europa»;
- Roman Goupil (FR), Film maker;
- Aart de Geus (DE), President of the Bertelsmann Foundation;
- Felipe Gonzalez (ES), former Prime Minister, former President of the Reflection Group on the Future of Europe (European Council);
- Sandro Gozi (IT), President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), former European Affairs Minister;
- Olivier Guez (FR), Writer and Journalist;
- Ulrike Guérot (DE), Director, European Democracy Lab;
- Cristina Hernandez Montanari, (ES), Founder member of Alliance4Europe, Civil servant, European Parliament;
- Claus Haugaard Sorensen (DK), Humanitarian Advisor, CTG;
- Hichem Hellara (BE), Founder and President of IHE group;
- Anne Hidalgo (FR), Mayor of Paris;
- Danuta Hübner (PL), former European Commissioner, President of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, European Parliament;
- Luca Jahier (IT), President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC);
- Lídia Jorge (PT), Novelist;
- Philippe Journo (FR), Founder of Compagnie de Phalsbourg;
- Alain Juppé (FR), former Prime Minister, Mayor of Bordeaux;
- Axel Kahn (FR), Geneticist, Honorary President of the Paris Descartes University;
- Isabelle Kocher (FR),CEO of Engie;
- Ivan Krastev (BG), Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and Permanent Fellow at the IWM;
- Alain Lamassoure (FR), Member of European Parliament, Former Minister;
- Lavinia Landru (RO), Journalist; Guillaume Leblanc (FR), Philosopher;
- Christophe Leclercq (FR), Media entrepreneur and founder of EurActiv;
- Jo Leinen (DE), Member of the European Parliament;
- André Loesekrug-Pietri (DE), Founder of ACapital, J.E.D.I. Spokesperson;
- Eduardo Lourenço (PT), Essayist, Philosopher;
- Ian McEwan (UK), Novelist, Screenwriter;
- Denis MacShane (UK), former Minister of State in charge of European Affairs;
- Riccardo Maraga (IT), Employment Lawyer;
- Luís Marques Mendes (PT), former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and former President of the Social Democratic Party;
- Vitor Martins (PT), Former Secretary of State for European Affairs;
- Evagoras Mavrommatis (CY), Entrepreneur, President of the Cypriot Community in France;
- Robert Menasse (AT),Writer;
- Íñigo Méndez de Vigo (ES), Member of the Cortes, former Minister, President of the Administrative Council of the College of Europe;
- Frédéric Meseuws (BE), Artist;
- JeanPierre Mignard (FR), Lawyer;
- Radu Mihaileanu (RO), Film Director;
- Jöelle Milquet (BE), former Vice Prime Minister, Minister;
- Alexandra Mitsotaki (EL), Founder of ActionAid Hellas, Chair of Action Finance Initiative;
- Jonathan Moskovic (BE), Founding member of CIVICO Europa, Co-coordinator of the G1000 project;
- Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke (UK), Founder and Managing Director at Women’s WorldWide Web (W4);
- Ferdinando Nelli Feroci (IT), former Ambassador and Permanent Representative, former European Commissioner, President of the IAI;
- Kalypso Nicolaïdis (EL), Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford;
- Catherine Noone (IE), Senator, President of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly;
- Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser (FI), Art Teacher and Media Professional;
- Johanna Nyman (FI), former President of the European Youth Forum; Philippe Oddo (FR), CEO of ODDO BHF;
- Birgitta Ohlsson (SE), former Minister for European Union Affairs;
- Sofi Oksanen (FI), Writer;
- Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins (PT), Administrator Gulbenkian Foundation, former Minister of Finance and Education;
- Claudia Olsson (SE), CEO and founder of Exponential AB;
- Erik Orsenna (FR), Writer; Frédéric Oudéa (FR), CEO of Société Générale; Markku Palipea (EST), Entrepreneur and Futurist;
- Hermann Parzinger (DE), President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and Executive President of Europa Nostra;
- Eric Philippon (FR), Founder of Famae;
- Ottavia Piccolo (IT), Actress;
- Rossen Plevneliev (BG), former President of the Republic;
- Francesco Profumo (IT), former Minister, President of Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation;
- Sneska Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic (NL/RS), General Secretary of Europa Nostra; Monica Radu, Présidente du Centre pour l’Innovation et le Développement de l’Europe Démocratique (CIDED);
- Francesca Ratti (IT), former Deputy Secretary General of the European Parliament, founding member and Co-President of CIVICO Europa;
- Mart Raudsaar (EE), Managing Director of Estonian Newspaper Association,columnist;
- Nina Rawal (SE), Head of Life science, Industrifonden;
- Thomas Reynaud (FR), CEO of the Iliad Group;
- Stéphane Richard (FR),CEO of Orange;
- Ricardo Rivero Ortega (ES), Rector of the Salamanca University;
- Maria João Rodrigues (PT), former Minister, Vice-President of the Socialist and Democrats Group, European Parliament;
- Robin Rivaton (FR), Writer; Petre Roman (RO), former Prime Minister;
- Taavi Roivas (EST), former Prime Minister;
- Jochen Sandig (DE), Director of the Sasha Waltz and Guests dance company;
- Fernando Savater (ES) Philosopher;
- Roberto Saviano (IT),Writer;
- Elly Schlein (IT), Member of the European Parliament;
- Luísa Schmidt (PT), Sociologist and Principal Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon;
- Nicolas Schmit (LU), former Minister for Labour, Employment, and Immigration;
- Gesine Schwan (DE), President of the governance platform Humboldt-Viadrina;
- Denis Simonneau (FR),President of EuropaNova; Benjamin Spark (BE), Artist;
- Philippe Starck (FR), Designer;
- Sonja Stuchtey (DE), Founder of Alliance4Europe;
- Farid Tabarki (NL), Founding Director of Studio Zeitgeist;
- Wolfgang Tillmans (DE), Photographer and Plastic Artist; P
- etros G. Themelis (EL), Professor of classical archaeology, Director of the Messene Projet;
- Taavi Toom (EE), Spokesperson of Estonia 200 on Foreign and European Affairs, former Ambassador;
- Kirsten van den Hul (NL), Writer, Editorialist;
- René van der Linden (NL), former President of the Netherlands’ Senate and former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe;
- Guy Verhofstadt (BE), former Prime Minister, President of the ALDE Group, European Parliament;
- Vaira Vike Freiberga (LT), former President of the Latvian Republic; Álvaro Vasconcelos, founder of Forum Demos, former Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies; Harry Verwayen (NL), Executive Director of Europeana;
- Nicolas Vignolles (FR), Director of Public Affairs and Communication, Make.org, former Political Advisor of the Minister of Culture;
- Cédric Villani (FR), Mathematician, Fields Medal awardee, Member of Parliament;
- Pietro Vimont (FR/IT), Founding member, CIVICO Europa;
- Luca Visentini (IT), General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation;
- Leendert de Voogd (NL) ), Corporate Manager;
- Jean-Louis Vullierme (FR), Philosopher;
- Sasha Waltz (DE), Dancer and Choreographer;
- Wim Wenders (DE) Film maker.