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Democracy without citizens? (1)

01 January 1991

Democracy without citizens?
artdoc August=1993

The Charta 91 group organised a conference in Brussels on 17-18
June entitled: Europe without frontiers? Democracy without
citizens? It was attended by 175 people representing many
countries and a wide range of groups. The starting point was that
racism and intolerance could be seen in all European countries,
and that the struggle against racism was also a `struggle to
upgrade democracy, get citizens more involved and develop polices
that eradicate the roots of racism'.
Much of the discussion took place in `round table' sessions on
`Citizens and politics' and `Politics and citizens'. Among the
points to emerge was the view that the idea of `citizenship' was
`meaningless at the European level unless it has a practical
content for all those living in the community'. Many speakers
raised the issue of the `democratic deficit' and the fact that
`intergovernmental cooperation increases the democratic deficit,
and even by-passes elected representatives'.
The structures of the European Community were seen as
fundamentally undemocratic with `a giant gap between politics and
the citizen'. In the plenary debate speakers emphasised that
however undemocratic the present structures are it was important
not to reject them as that `is precisely what undemocratic forces
in Europe want to happen, for then nothing would stand in the way
of an intergovernmental, centralised superstate'.
Charta 91 has been set up to monitor the Belgian Presidency of
the EC in the fields of justice, law, policing and racism. The
conference sent a memorandum of issues to the Belgian Minister
for European Affairs and has set up a watchdog committee. The
group is currently preparing the conference report and is
planning a further conference in December to coincide with the
EC Council meeting of Prime Ministers.
Charta 91, Wellingstraat 89, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.

Statewatch vol 3 no 4 July-August 1993