Loomio
Fri 25 Mar 2016 6:35AM

Crowd-source a EU Constitution

AR Andrew Reitemeyer Public Seen by 338

Inspired by the people's constitution in Iceland, we decided to crowdsource a constitution for Europe
dr. Matthijs Pontier (PPNL)

AR

Andrew Reitemeyer Fri 25 Mar 2016 6:38AM

ur idea is to invite as many Europeans as possible to post ideas for articles to include in a constitution. To get as much input as possible, we would like to combine online input with input given at offline events, to be held in as many European countries as possible (we plan to ask other pirate parties, as well as other organizations to organize events for this).

Articles could be added to the system, and if they are popular enough (i.e., minimum percentage of total votes) and widely supported (i.e., not controversial / minimum percentage of postive votes vs negative votes), they would be accepted for the constitution.

The Citizen's Foundation is willing to participate with us on this project. Together with them, we can set up a Your Priorities e-democracy platform to collect ideas and articles. Additionally, we got a number of international contacts from Birgitta Jonsdottir, Katrin Oddsdottir, etc. so events can be organized around Europe.
In Amsterdam, we can use a dome tent of Netwerk Democratie on the Fabcity Campus of EuropeByPeople during the NL presidency of the EU
http://europebypeople.nl/ http://europebypeople.nl/fabcity-campus

  • Can you forward this to various pirate parties and ask them whether they would like to cooperate on this, and/or organize one or more local events in their country to contribute to the constitution? Or could you provide a list of contact details, so we can invite them ourselves?

  • Would PPI like to play a role in (internationally) organizing this project?

Some more info:
Stichting Netwerk Democratie is the foundation that has been working on various forms of improving democracy for years. We will collaborate with them on this project. Stichting Pakhuis De Zwijger is the foundation who will organize this 'campus' on the Java Island in Amsterdam all through spring 2016. They have gotten the job from the overall program called Europe by the People, which is in turn financed and run by the EU itself, as part of the Dutch Chairmanship of the EU in the first half of 2016.

The idea is great: we will use the campus, a place where may organisations will hold events around new democracy, as a launch base for the crowdsourcing of a new European Constitution, for the people, by the people. In reality, we hope to create something more than a constitution. We hope to arrive at a document in which people from all over Europe have submitted input for what Europe should be, where it should be heading, and what our shared values really are. So a perfect result would be a manifesto for the future, with the best ideas for the future of Europe are combined with (or based on) shared European values.

The brilliance is that this campaign co-incides with
1) a Dutch referendum on a EU-treaty with Ukraine
2) a Brittish referendum of a possible Brexit,
3) the launch of DiEm25, the new pan-European movement started by Yannis Varoufakis for democracy and transparency, not so long ago.
We would like to show the world what positive, deliberative democracy for Europe really looks like :)

kind regards,

dr. Matthijs Pontier
www.linkedin.com/in/matthijspontier
https://twitter.com/Matthijs85
https://www.facebook.com/MatthijsPiraat

CBJ

Chemseddine BEN JEMAA Tue 5 Apr 2016 6:45PM

with mediawiki or etherpad ?

M

Matthijs Wed 6 Apr 2016 1:59AM

It's still open for discussion, if you ask me.
What do you think would be best?

M

Matthijs Tue 12 Apr 2016 1:28PM

The plan is to create:
- Landing page (suggestions for URL? bythepeople.eu seems to be taken)
- Collect articles on YRPRI
- Write constitution in mediawiki

Let me know if you'd like to help!

JD

Julian Dumitrascu Tue 19 Apr 2016 8:54PM

Hi! I am interested in this. Should we schedule a public talk over the Internet about this?

M

Matthijs Tue 14 Jun 2016 10:54AM

We just launched the platform:
Katrín Oddsdóttir recorded an inspiring message about the People's Constitution in Iceland https://vimeo.com/168789897

Which rights and values do you think should be represented in the Constitution?
Participate: Share your ideas and discuss them, organize a local crowdsourcing event, or become an ambassador: https://peoplesconstitution.eu/

Could PPI play a role in:
- Spreading the platform and encourage people to participate in writing the constitution
- Help gathering volunteers (for example for translating
- Encouraging local pirate parties (or other organizations) to organize local crowdsourcing events in which people discuss ideas and add them to the platform live or afterwards. This can be general sessions or themed session, focussing on a specific topic
- Increase media attention (Europe wide or local. Local media attention probably works best if a local crowdsourcing event is organized)

L

Larose75 Tue 14 Jun 2016 12:48PM

this is a really good project
i'm in !
;-)
french historical constitution here : https://annuel.framapad.org/p/french1789constitution

PPI have to act in that way