The best way to guarantee the reassessment of the European unification process, its renewal and updating is giving greater visibility and prominence to the achievements of Europe, as well as promoting procedures of citizen participation and interaction with institutions and community organizations Education and training of Europeans are the key parts of the project “Upgrading Europe 2012-2015”, which, along with a substantial improvement in communication and collaboration between the institutional levels of state members, make up the main nexus when increasing the role of citizens in the process of building the European Union. This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Repuation Leadership and contains references, among other sources, to the statements made by Jaume Duch, spokesman of the European Parliament and director of media; Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, secretary of State for the European Union; Pablo Zalba, MEP from the Partido Popular; Antolín Sánchez, Socialist MEP; Cristina Manzano, Foreign Policy Director in Spanish; José Ignacio Torreblanca, European Council on Foreign Relations Director in Spain; Susana del Río, director of Upgrading Europe 2012-2015, during the session “Citizens and New European Policy: Upgrading Europe 2012-2015” held along with the European Commission and Parliament office in Spain, in Madrid on September 20, 2012.

1. Insights
Strategy Documents
I35/2012
Public Affairs
European citizen
participation: increasing
citizen identification with
the European Union
The best way to guarantee the reassessment of the European unification process,
its renewal and updating is giving greater visibility and prominence to the
achievements of Europe, as well as promoting procedures of citizen participation
and interaction with institutions and community organizations
Education and training of Europeans are the key
parts of the project “Upgrading Europe 20122015”, which, along with a substantial improvement
in communication and collaboration between the
institutional levels of state members, make up the
main nexus when increasing the role of citizens in
the process of building the European Union.
Representative democracy means not only to
exercise the right to vote every four or five years; that
behaviour repeats more frequently among citizens,
when the European Parliament elections take place;
the remoteness of Brussels and complication of the
European process make Europeans sceptical and
often disassociated to the process.
Participatory democracy, however, broadens the
horizons of representative democracy enabling
interaction of administrations and people, making it
more regular and fruitful, not only dependent on the
electoral process and the renewal of the legislative
or executive presidencies, but also, dependent on
regular communication with citizens about political
management throughout the policy term.
Transnational democracy quality that comes with
the EU, implies the ability to adapt to major global
challenges posed by twenty-first century and that as part of this project- will be analysed university
professors and students, political leaders, journalists,
bloggers, associations and foundations members.
Therefore, main European actors in this field are
linked and integrated in the project working together
in a network to make of the project a catalyst for
a new European policy that gives priority to the
value of citizen participation, cultural diversity,
development of skills beyond mere training, improve
This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Repuation Leadership and contains references, among other sources,
to the statements made by Jaume Duch, spokesman of the European Parliament and director of media; Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, secretary of
State for the European Union; Pablo Zalba, MEP from the Partido Popular; Antolín Sánchez, Socialist MEP; Cristina Manzano, Foreign
Policy Director in Spanish; José Ignacio Torreblanca, European Council on Foreign Relations Director in Spain; Susana del Río, director
of Upgrading Europe 2012-2015, during the session “Citizens and New European Policy: Upgrading Europe 2012-2015” held along with
the European Commission and Parliament office in Spain, in Madrid on September 20, 2012.

2. European citizen
participation:
increasing citizen
identification with
the European Union
the Erasmus project and, above all, the exchange of
views and ideas to support European integration.
Europe, a successful brand
According to Susana del Río, director of the project
“Upgrading Europe 2012-2015”, explaining the
achievements of the European Union is an essential
aspect since citizens tend to forget –especially in times
of severe crisis like nowadays– the achieved advances
thanks to the process started more than 60 years ago.
Hence, to support the European branding is the
necessary way if the goal is to engage citizens with
Europe. The best way to create a European space
more and more solid is to generate an open, honest
and paneuropean debate including all the Union
countries.
“Participation
is the best
way to fight
effectively
against a
widespread
perception
of the EU
deciding
not taking
into account
citizens”
The European Citizens’ Initiative
Upon entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on
1 December 2009 was activated a new important
mechanism for participation, the European Citizens’
Initiative, a possibility that allows citizens (one
million) to take active part in the development and
political decisions of EU, to be able to request the
Commission to submit a proposal for legislation that
eventually will have to be approved by the Parliament.
The purpose of this initiative is giving more voice and
power to people and compensating the excess weight
of lobbies and pressure groups or large corporations;
it seeks to raise interest of ordinary citizens by the
debate on Europe, about its construction process and
its future, beyond the current economic and political
vicissitudes.
The brand Europe represents a project of crossing
national borders at all levels and, compared to other
models of growth and unification, it means the creation
of a political superstructure: the European Union,
from a more integrative perspective in human and
social terms, personal welfare and trade and economic
exchange. This is the project of Europeanism,
according to Antolín Sánchez, Socialist MEP.
This new tool is organized through a committee of
seven citizens residing in each of the countries where
the initiative is entered in the register and collected
one million signatures for the countries concerned,
to detail and present it publicly in the European
Parliament. Only then, is when the Commission
decides whether the initiative is considered or rejected.
The solution to the financial crisis problems is a
stronger European brand, a model change and a
commitment to economic and political unification,
following the leadership models of other strong
brands as the United States, according to Pablo
Zalba, MEP from the Partido Popular.
One of the process that has been gradually developed
in the EU and that citizens have probably not seen
enough -when compared to its real importance- is
the fact that the power within the Union has been
displaced by the Community institutions, countries
and their structures according to José Ignacio
From technocratization to participation
Graph 1: How does the European Citizens’ Initiative work?
Get started!
Register your
initiative.
1
Commission
answers within
2 months
Prepare your
initiative and set
up your citizen’s
committee.
Collect!
4
2
Collect statements
of support in
at least 7 EU
countries.
Max. 12 months
3
National authority
answers within
1 month
Submit!
7
If the Commission
decides to follow
your initiative:
the legislative
procedure starts.
Get statements of
support certified
by national
authorities.
National
authorities answer
within 3 months
You wish to collect
online? Get your
system certified.
8
5
The Commission
examines your
initiative and
replies.
6
You have at
least 1 000 000
signatories?
Submit your
initiative to the
Commisssion.
Commission
answers within
3 months.
Source: My Voice, 2012.
Insights
2

3. European citizen
participation:
increasing citizen
identification with
the European Union
Graph 2: The Eurozone
Countries of the Euro.
EU countries not in the Euro zone.
Sweden
Finlandia
Finland
Denmark
Netherlands
Ireland
Latvia
Lithuania
Great Belgium
Britain
Germany
Poland
Czech Rep.
Luxembourg
Slovakia
France
Austria
Hungary
Slovenia
Italy
Portugal
“The euro has
become the
main symbol
of EU identity,
the most
important
sign of
unification and
achievements”
Spain
Grecia
Greece
Source: Wikipedia, 2012.
Torreblanca, director of the European Council on
Foreign Relations in Spain.
Parallel to this process, there has been a progressive
technocratization of European institutions, their
policies and their leaders, which has distanced
citizens from Europe and decisions taken here, and
has deepened in disaffection towards the Union and
its politicians.
Participation is a good solution to the problems of
this technocratization. It reduces the democratic
structural deficit of the EU that has existed since its
inception as CECA and its subsequent conversion
into European Economic Community (EEC).
According to Jaume Duch, spokesman of the
European Parliament and director of media, this is
the best way to fight effectively against a general
widespread perception, according to which the
European Union decides on the side-lines of the
citizens interests, without listening them or taken
them into account. This is the best reflection of the
political crisis in the EU.
At the same time, the euro, the single European
currency, has become the main symbol of EU
identity, the most important sign of unification
and the achievements. It is no coincidence, in that
sense, that, according to research carried out by
European institutions, the countries belonging to
the euro are the ones that show a higher degree of
positive identification with the EU.
Conclusion: overcoming disaffection
If something is hurting the process of European
integration nowadays -even more than its financial
crisis- is a political crisis that underlies a democratic
deficit that has been dragged on since its inception
and has been exacerbated in recent years when a
silent transfer of powers from Member States to
Community institutions occurred.
The solution to this important problem is to
strength participation mechanisms within the
political structures of the EU and training and
achievements that the European Union has put on
the table in favour of improving the quality of life
and opportunities for its citizens.
Finally, the improvement in the citizens
identification with the Union is the other
cornerstone necessary in which the euro played
an important role, hence the importance of
maintaining it; a process that will live its next test
in the Parliament elections to be held in 2014 and
will serve to check whether citizens still are tuned
with the European project.
Insights
3

4. Leading by
reputation
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