The rejection of the European Constitution by the people of France and the Netherlands has led the EU into a crisis. Never before in history has there been such an intense debate about the future of Europe. This debate needs to be continued in more depth. The high turnout in these two referendums shows that citizens want to take an active role in European issues. Here is the opportunity to start a real learning process. We must first understand the reasons for this rejection, in order to increase the chance of acceptance in the future. One of the major reasons for the failure of the constitutional treaty is people’s lack of trust in EU institutions. They are perceived as aloof and remote, because past decisions about European integration have actively excluded citizens. From now on, major decisions cannot be made only by diplomats and heads of state, but must be made by the citizens themselves.

The first Convention made some promising steps in the direction of more citizens’ participation. However, from a democratic perspective the convention process was still far from satisfactory. It is the citizens who must issue the Convention’s mandate. Only a democratically legitimate Convention procedure can produce a draft treaty that can win the people’s confidence. We therefore demand the initiation of a genuinely democratic Convention and ratification process. This should comprise the following steps:

A procedure for a new Convention must be designed so that members are directly elected by the citizens. The issues to be resolved would include who may present themselves as candidates and how many candidates there should be per country. Consideration must be given to ensure that a wide spectrum of views is represented.

The new Convention should meet and make its decisions in public. The presidium must be elected by the Convention Members, in order to moderate the process. The quality of the process must not be compromised by time constraints.

Individual citizens, citizen groups, NGOs etc. should be able to present proposals to the Convention, which should then be taken into consideration. This procedure will make it far more likely that the final proposal will be accepted. The Convention should present its provisional findings in the form of a range of basic options. These alternatives should then be debated publicly in appropriate settings (e.g. citizen conferences).

The main task of the Convention should be to analyse different options and work out a solution that would be capable of securing a majority among the citizens of Europe. A constitution is just one option among other possible new arrangements for the Future of Europe.

The final proposal worked out by the Convention must be subject to referenda in each of the member states. These referenda should take place on the same day.