Statements

Newropeans, the first trans-European political movement for the democratisation of the European Union has been launched. It will present candidates in all EU member states in the 2009 European elections.

The party has been created because Europe and democracy are too important to be left in the hands of national parties and of bureaucrats alone and because democratising Europe is the task of all European citizens.

Newropeans is the result of 20 years of work for Europe and will present candidates at the 2009 European elections in all EU member countries all with the same programme.

The Newropeans, who were mostly born after the Treaty of Rome, are convinced that the current political crisis in the European Union is the result of the increasing inability of European leaders and institutions to respond to European citizens’ expectations.

This crisis of legitimacy increasingly nurtures national and European populisms. This is why the European Union must rapidly transform its institutions, methods of functioning, and its political actors, to put citizens in the driving seat and to allow the European Union to regain its legitimacy.

Following the successes of the last 50 years of European construction, the challenge today is no longer to prevent war in Europe but to find ways to govern democratically and legitimately a political entity made up of 500 million people, of almost 30 different nationalities, cultures and languages.

If the European Union cannot rise to this major challenge, it may well collapse and provoke a ’crisis of democracy’ on the whole European continent.

For Newropeans, the first step in achieving democratisation is to build up a vast trans-European political movement which directly involves European citizens in the European debate. In the next European elections 2009, Newropeans will give citizens the chance to vote for European democracy which extends beyond national borders and debates. For 2009, Newropeans is targeting 5 to 10% of the vote at European level and the creation of a parliamentary group with 50 to 75 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

Newropeans will be a political force for democracy as experienced in the history of all European countries when citizens fought to bring democracy to their country.

Newropeans will stand only in European elections. The movement sees itself as a catalyst allowing the transition from a post-war EU built by administrations and national parties into a democratic EU where the citizens and peoples are the motors of major European decisions, served by a competent and effective political class, anchored in the values of democracy, justice and openness to the world. Once this historical goal is achieved within 10 or 20 years, Newropeans as a force for democracy will have no reason to continue and will be dissolved. But to reach this goal is a huge challenge.

To join Newropeans or for more information on building a new way for democracy in Europe contact us.