Democracy International welcomes the decision by the political groups to convoke a European Convention but stresses that this assembly must include citizens and civil society in its deliberations.

A constitutional assembly of politicians, citizens and civil society and a debate on the future of Europe have been a long-time demand of Democracy International in order to make the EU fully transparent and democratic.

In 2014, as part of Democracy International’s campaign “Democratic Europe Now”, 115 Members of European Parliament supported Democracy International’s demands and pledged for an EU convention that is transparent, democratic and inclusive.

For Democracy International, the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaty on 25 March 2017, is the occasion for the European Parliament to start a broad constitutional process on the future of the EU.

In particular, the European Parliament

• should launch a two-year deliberation process, in which proposals for a more social and democratic EU constitution will be developed, based on discussions with citizens, civil society, representatives of local and regional communities, and national and European parliamentarians and
   
• use its right according to Article 48 of the Lisbon Treaty to ask for the convocation of a Convention based on these elaborated proposal
   
• Then, the Convention should meet from 2019 on. At the end, the constitution should be presented to all European citizens for a vote. This pan-European referendum, held on a single day in each member state, shall be counted with a double majority (55% majority of the member states and 65% majority of European citizens).

Democracy International calls upon its supporters to sign the open letter to put pressure on these demands. Sign here!