ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY VOTE
Place du Luxembourg / 15 December / 10am-2pm
Come meet us and listen to live music
Our task force of Erasmus students and graduates form the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) demanding full political rights for EU citizens on the move – “VOTERS WITHOUT BORDERS”.
You are cordially invited to come and meet us any time from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday 15 December at Place du Luxembourg, Brussels, opposite the European Parliament!
Find out what it takes to set up and run an ECI and what “Voters Without Borders” is all about.
Welcome to our tent where we will have a live band and will be collecting your messages. Join the informal chat with local people, EU citizens and MEP’s. Of course, social distancing will be respected and special masks given out.
Sceptical about ECIs? We understand. Only 6% reach the target of one million signatures. ECIs are more than just a petition though, as they give the next generation the opportunity to shape the agenda and engage with EU policy makers. It’s about high profile and creative multi-tasking. Interested in joining our task force?
We have already achieved one success with a commitment by the Commission to reform the existing partial political rights for 14 million mobile EU citizens to vote and stand in municipal and European elections. Current legislation is not fit for purpose with only an estimated 10% choosing to vote where they live and 20% in their country of origin.
We need your support to make sure reforms are implemented and to extend these rights to regional, national elections and referendums. If our proposed reforms had been in place, would there have been a majority in the 2016 referendum to take the UK out of the EU?
The opportunities are there to create a Europe of universal suffrage. The Commission is publishing its Democracy Action Plan, its Citizenship Report 2020 and preparations are finally underway to convene the Conference on the Future of Europe in which citizens are expected to play a major role. COVID-19 has also put the spotlight on the need for reforms to make it easier to vote when, where and by the means one chooses whether remotely or on the spot at the polling station.
Voters Without Borders team put together a paper setting out the problems associated with EU electoral rights backed up by facts and figures, as well as the campaign’s goals.
Join us for our Christmas event on 15 December, sign the ECI and get others to sign in order to:
– Expand political rights, remove the obstacles, and bring voting up to date with the doubling of freedom of movement in the last decade, so that mobile EU citizens are better represented and part of the society where they live and pay their taxes;
– Encourage the spread of the principle “if you let me vote in your country, I’ll let you vote in mine “, so a more European and tolerant political culture emerges to combat the extreme nationalism undermining the EU;
– Eradicate the stains of disenfranchisement on the map of Europe linked to mobility and migration and be part of the historical struggle for universal suffrage.
To get the full picture, please go here for background information about the ECI, stories about disenfranchisement and difficulties of cross border voting, as well as your toolkit for being an active European citizen.
ECIT is a foundation for the advancement of European citizenship which has set up the task force “Voters Without Borders”.
The foundation and the task force are independent of political parties, commercial interests and the EU Institutions.
Contact details for the event on 15 December:
Beniamino Brunati – VWB Team
+393483812334
beniamino.brunati@gmail.com
Aure Isouard – VWB Team
+337738449499
aure.isouard@ieseg.fr