The video is based on a German zensursula video. The producer of the video made several videos that became famous in the German debate on internet freedom etc. Do check out  http://alexanderlehmann.net/ for more videos!

First of all what is this European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI)? It is a new tool to involve citizens in EU decision making. Basically you need 1 Mio signatures  of European citizens to call on the European Commission to draft a policy proposal. Read some background info here.

Let’s look in the treaty, Art 11 of the TEU:

Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the European Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.

The procedures and conditions required for such a citizens’ initiative shall be determined in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 24 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The problem is the last sentence. At the moment negotiations are under way about  how the specific details should look like. The European Commission published a  green paper and a public consultation just ended on 31.1.2010. Legal uncertainty is a problem if you start a campaign now, but there are even more  problems of the “Free Sunday” campaign:

(1) Legal uncertainty.  It is risky to start a campaign when the legal details are not yet clear. The amount of the signatures might be clear but what about electronic votes? What personal details need to be submitted? What is a “significant number” of Member States? Will there be a time limit between the first and the last signature?  Some of the things have been debated but as long as there is no certainty it seems like a waste of time to start collecting signatures or even to “build momentum”.

(2) Campaign backing: The idea comes from Martin Kastler a Bavarian MEP, not the most innovative start but fair enough. At the moment there are 5 civil society organisations supporting the campaign: 2 Christian groups that are closely linked to the German WWII expellees  (“Heimatvertriebenen”) , two national association of Catholics and a local (protestant) working group of the CDU. First of all, this is a relatively small amount of organisations. All of them Christian groups and all of them based in Germany. One the one hand it is not surprising that religious groups are among the supporters for such an idea, but is it enough to get support only from Germany when you want to organise a European campaign? The main Catholic and Protestant organisations in Germany are not even  included and you can’t tell me that religious groups in other countries are not well organised…  But to give the campaign more credibility it is certainly a  good idea to include other non-religious groups. Trade unions spring to mind, but also various NGOs and parties might support you. Interestingly, Kastner mentions that in his press release that he hopes to get the backing of other groups as well – but why start a campaign page already if you could get massive support with some more lobbying?

(3) Website and social media: So you have a campaign website. Very good. But is it clever to have it in 2 languages only (English and German)?  I know it is difficult to translate a page into many languages but if you had more supporters in other countries it might be easier. And I found a facebook fan page. Well done. But again: only in German and only 377 fans… Other social media gadgets are missing, no twitter, no blog, no discussion and most importantly no tools to spread the message: banners, maybe user submitted campaign material. A successful online campaing needs to be creative!

(4) Media campaign. There is none. A quick look into the German google news reveals clearly that there is no hype whatsoever. A couple of regional and Christian German newspapers copied the press release, that’s it.

(5)  Problem with the free-sunday.eu campaign is the lack of content. Keep the Sunday free of work – ok, but how exactly? There is no background info, no specific legislative proposals, no overview of the legal situation in different European countries, only one page with a couple of bullet points that outline some objectives. However, lacking a clear legislative proposal, the danger is that others label you as not being relevant, which might not only kill the campaign itself but also discourage others. First thing to remember is that there needs to be a specific issue in which the Commission can act in accordance with the Treaties! So is it an appropriate proposal for an ECI? Unfortunately we cannot evaluate this based on the campaign website!

In case the the campaign has the aim to get more support for the cause and start a proper ECI later – make it clear and ask for specific proposals for example as part of a “public citizen consultation”! After all you want to include citizens, right? Are you looking for actual signatures or just for supporters that are willing to contribute to the real campaign – again this is not clear and might not be beneficial for your campaign.

(6) The slogan. “Mom and dad belong to us on Sunday.” is inspired by a  German trade union slogan from 1956. Is that enough for 2010?

First impressions, unfortunately, count – especially for campaigns. The free-sunday.eu campaign is unprofessional and looks amateurish. Let’s hope the next campaign looks more promising (animal rights groups are usually very professional…)

Article would have not existed without Moray Gilland – Thanks a lot for the twitter discussion

Update: Another rather critical take on the issue by  Matthew Lowry’s Tamsanian Devil.

Although I fully support the campaign and the idea behind it I partly agree with Tony Barber who argues (among other things that are more debatable…)  that all these things come a bit late and indeed should have been done before the European elections as part of the campaigns:

Each (political party) should have rallied behind a candidate of their choice.  But they did not.  The socialists were too divided even to come up with a candidate of their own.  The opportunity was lost.  It was their own fault.

Is it any good? Judge for yourself. If you like black humour give it a try! I think it is funny in a odd way but since it is quite annoying to listen to the screams I would not watch it again despite the rather funny ending. And of course somebody will start the debate whether there is a deeper meaning of “death” regarding the EU or how “scary” the EU really is…

The Teaser

Part 1/3

“Voting is for everyone. So if you’re running a polling station, just stay cool and make it happen.”

Update: The first remix video is already online. Watch it here.

Update: Part 2/3

Update: Part 3/3

The “Anyone but Barroso” – Campaign calls for a new Commission President in 2009:

We don’t care who but the Commission needs a new President in 2009

1) 3 countries have voted No in recent referendums about European matters.

2) The EU has a crisis of confidence, a crisis of identity

3) Under these circumstances, the head of the EU’s executive, Commission president Barroso, must NOT be reappointed.

And since it is a typical online campaign, you can get involved! You can sign the petition and join and invite others on facebook. And make sure to read the campaign blog. Although not much content is provided at the moment, this will surely change soon!

It is an interesting idea especially because there is a real possibility of a second term for José Manuel Barroso. He has been rather active to lobby member states about the necessity for his second term. And member states so far have been reluctant to actually make the case for another candidate. The danger is that there will be another four years “muddling through”… Obviously the campaign has to be seen as a first step towards a debate on who actually should become Commission President as pure negative campaigning is not always the way to go.

I think it is also important to get people to think about the performance of the present Commission as an act of politicizing EU affairs! Actually it is quite a good example for what’s wrong with the EU at the moment: Basically the most powerful position in EU politics is decided on the “Justus Lipsius carpet market” as Graham Watson (MEP) once said.  There is another campaign out there that calls for a democratic election of the Commission President: Who’s your candidate? wants to get the main European parties to nominate  their candidate for Commission President before the 2009 EP elections in order to give the position a greater democratic mandate!

But apart from the mere presence in the blogosphere, do the Romanian politicians’ blogs have any real impact on their image or their electoral capital? This remains to be judged, taking into account the election results. However, what is more interesting and tells a lot about the personality of the blog owners is the way they use the blogs and their way of dealing with comments.Having spent the last fours years in the opposition, the Romanian social-democrats (PSD) are trying to win back people’s trust in the context of the electoral year 2008. Nothing unexpected, so far. However, this time they are making use of a bit more than the usual campaigning methods. Already for about a year now, quite a few leaders and notorious members of the Social-Democrat Party started having blogs, where they comment (some more frequently than others) the latest developments and describe, in the eve of elections, their electoral campaigning trips throughout the country.

Maybe not surprisingly, in dire need of a new, fresh image, the social-democrats are the most active new members of the Romanian political blogosphere. Be it a former President or Prime Minister or a Member of the European Parliament, they all try to catch the attention by describing (arguably some more eloquently than others) their daily business, reacting to various events and declarations, advertising and commenting books (theirs or others’) as well as their TV appearances. Thus, an important number of blog posts are issued every day, generating a reasonable amount of traffic and quite a few comments. Until now it actually sounds like a very good example of what a blog is meant to be: an open forum of ideas and debates. However, if you start reading the whole thread of comments (which sometimes can get extremely irritating, I confess), you soon realise that something is not quite as it should be. Most of the comments are just praising the author, in a completely uncritical way, the very same people (one merit has to be acknowledged: a very loyal, if small, audience was created around these blogs) comments in the very same way on all the blogs, the authors are very often complimenting and quoting each other and so on. Sometimes it really gives the impression of a spider web, a closed network where the elements are clearly positioned to reinforce each other, a  game of mirrors that, only when observed from outside, reveals its artificial, “closely directed” nature.

In fact, the blog of the Electronic Communication Service of PSD might give a hint on the organisation of the “red” Romanian blogosphere: it acts as a hub for all official blogs of PSD politicians but also includes some “recommended blogs” that, at a closer look, turn out to be the very active and passionate commentators of the former.

A few critical comments per post are allowed, of course, as a hint towards an “open dialogue”, but any unfavourable opinion (on their own blog or on any other) is quickly countered, usually giving birth to a new defensive blogpost. It is not the idea of replying to comments in itself that is bothering, it is more about the passionate towards aggressive tone adopted by the writers for their replies.

Baring all this in mind, it has to be said that some of the social-democrat bloggers  do provide some quality content. For instance, some of the Romanian MEPs (also, not surprisingly, some of the more active ones) are regularly updating their readers about their activity in Brussels and Strasbourg. In my opinion, this is an effort that has to be appreciated, as it sheds a bit of light on what is going on on the EU arena and on the involvement of the Romanian representatives.

An electoral device, purely an image tool, or a new defense mechanism, the blog has become a daily presence in the Romanian political arena and it is interesting to see if it will make a difference in the eyes of the electorate.

Written by Anda

Anyway, the aims of the campaign are worth supporting: Linking the EP elections to the most powerful position in the EU could turn the European Parliament elections into a truly European event with European issues and European debates. This would stop the current situation where voters use EP elections to vote on national issues. At the same time, it might help EP elections to get into the spotlight and thus result in higher turnouts.

Here is the short campaign description:

1. The President of the European Commission should no longer be chosen behind closed doors in the European Council.

2.Instead, the President of the European Commission should be chosen by the European Parliament, and, by implication, us the voters, as hinted in articles 9A and 9D of the Lisbon Treaty.

3.Therefore, the political parties in the European Parliament should, in good time before the June 2009 parliament elections, answer the question: Who’s Your Candidate?

You can sign the petition here!

Although I am not completely convinced about this idea, I signed the petition because I think that this new position of a European Council president is somewhat unnecessary. It will only create more confusion among citizens that already today are not too familiar with EU institutions. I am also not too convinced that EU policy making becomes more coherent with a permanent European Council president as well as rotating presidencies in the Council of Ministers. It just makes things more complicated!

But one critical remark regarding Kissinger’s quote. He was Secretary of State so his “natural” EU counterpart is actually the High Representative of Foreign Affairs. So he should call Mr Solana and none of the presidents! So, instead of talking about the presidents, one should rather give the High Representative more power (or introduce more QMV in EU foreign policy) to ‘please’ Mr Kissinger.

(I don’t know if I want to please Mr Kissinger though, and anyway I doubt that Kissinger would ever refrain from negotiating with national counterparts…but that is a different story…)

The campaign “seeks to collect opinions and concern of the European citizens on a range of topics.” The first step was to translate this into all official EU languages.