On-line journal no. 4 – July 2012 - Modelling the New Europe

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On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe Issue no. 4/2012 constitute a veritable European public space. A space, where citizenship is tied to residence and not to origin, and where the European people can enjoy complete civil rights (the right of referendum for adopting or rejecting a law and the right of initiative to propose a law). The European political parties must acquire more importance and the election process and their programs must be European not national. The main source of the European legitimacy crises is created by fundamental political elements like the lack of a European public space, a space where European issues can be debated at a European level. A first manifestation of the European public space is understanding that the different national public spaces represent the foundation. The configuration of a public space for the European Union requests a series of particular conditions, considering that in the international law, it possess the statute of an international governmental organization: - inside the European Union, liberty, equality, the citizen’s fundamental rights must be guaranteed by the Treaties or by a Constitution; the concept of common citizenship must be used. Thus, it is necessary to establish, like in the national states, a state of law or a union of law. - democratic forms and structures are necessary to characterize the life of the European society. The citizen must be able to react to the legislative, executive, and judicial institutions (the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the European Court of Justice) - the European Union must be able to use the competences given by the member states concerning different common policies. - the existence of NGO’s and political parties giving to citizens that share the same ideas, the possibility to discuss and articulate a common opinion. Jean-Marc Ferry (2000) sustains that the condition for building a European public space resides in the articulation of three principles: civility, legality, publicity. These principles constitute the patrimony of the European civilization in the measure in which the legality conditions the base structure; the civility assures the continuity of daily practices where the results are opposable to the parties captivated by the publicity of debates, in virtue of the non-violent constraining force of the public opinion. 85
On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe Issue no. 4/2012 The public space, in its political dimension, is the space of democratic debate and the place of political action. Through the public space, citizens have access to political information, they can debate, and form opinions and they can choose the right persons to represent them. Through the public space, the citizens are not only the receivers of law, but also the authors of that law (Habermas 1997). The European Union forms today a dense network of institutional relations, social and political, which is on the verge to become more complex in the context of futures enlargements. This Union needs to surpass its economical dimension for achieving a Europe of citizens and diversity. Recent analysis of media, research centres, and statistical organisms, especially the Eurobarometer, are capturing the distance between citizens and the European institutions. The low participation level to the last elections for the European Parliament is the most recent example. The truth is that the Union is not yet equipped with adapted instruments. It is essential to promote an active transnational participation of citizens in the European construction. It is important to valorise mutual understanding and solidarity, in order to contribute to the intercultural dialogue inside the Union. For that, the Union must offer the necessary instruments to allow the European citizens to involve in this creation. The European Union needs a program that places the citizens in the centre of its actions and responds to their aspirations of better participating to the future of Europe. This program will allow citizens of different nationalities to meet, to interact, to confront their ideas, and develop their own reflexions in a European public space that captures their diversity. Numerous representatives of the European civil society - syndicates, patronates, NGOs, euro think tanks, cultural organizations, etc. - express their progressive determination to participate to the European project. They contributed to the introduction of the principle of participative democracy in the European Constitution project. Nevertheless, there is no instrument able to put in practice transnational projects allowing the development of a more active participation of citizens in European issues. 86
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Bibliographie On-line Journal Model
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Introduction On-line Journal Modell
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Table no. 1- Proposed indicators 1
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On-line journal no. 4 – July 2012 - Modelling the New Europe

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