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Democracy without citizens?

01 July 2003

The Charta 91 group organised a conference in Brussels on 17-18 June entitled: Europe without frontiers? Democracy without citizens? It was attended by 175 people representing many countries and a wide range of groups. The starting point was that racism and intolerance could be seen in all European countries, and that the struggle against racism was also a "struggle to upgrade democracy, get citizens more involved and develop polices that eradicate the roots of racism".

Much of the discussion took place in "round table" sessions on "Citizens and politics" and "Politics and citizens". Among the points to emerge was the view that the idea of "citizenship" was meaningless at the European level unless it has a practical content for all those living in the community . Many speakers raised the issue of the "democratic deficit" and the fact that "intergovernmental cooperation increases the democratic deficit, and even by-passes elected representatives".

The structures of the European Community were seen as fundamentally undemocratic with "a giant gap between politics and the citizen". In the plenary debate speakers emphasised that however undemocratic the present structures are it was important not to reject them as that "is precisely what undemocratic forces in Europe want to happen, for then nothing would stand in the way of an intergovernmental, centralised superstate."

Charta 91 has been set up to monitor the Belgian Presidency of the EC in the fields of justice, law, policing and racism. The conference sent a memorandum of issues to the Belgian Minister for European Affairs and has set up a watchdog committee. The group is currently preparing the conference report and is planning a further conference in December to coincide with the EC Council meeting of Prime Ministers.

Charta 91, Wellingstraat 89, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.