Activities of Alexis GEORGOULIS related to 2020/2201(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on citizens’ dialogues and citizens’ participation in EU decision-making
Amendments (29)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that citizens’ trust in the EU institutions is fundamental for democracy, good governance and effective policy-making and that for this reason the EU institutions must strive for the highest possible standards of transparency, accountability and integrity by taking specific, focused and coordinated relevant measures;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Welcomes the establishment of an Ethics body (2020/2133(INI)) as an independent authority to foster transparency in the EU institutions;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Stresses the need to financially invest in activities to strengthen transparency in the governance procedures of the EU institutions;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1 d. Urges the EU institutions to provide timely and fully transparent access to the public during all preparatory stages of the legislative documents and processes;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1 e. Calls on the Commission to take further and specific measures in order to strengthen transparency with a special focusing on the EU decision-making regarding the allocation of any EU funding;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 f (new)
Paragraph 1 f (new)
1 f. Calls on the Commission to monitor and conduct systematic controls in order to ensure that organisations once registered in the Transparency Register keep covering transparency criteria overtime;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 g (new)
Paragraph 1 g (new)
1 g. Highlights that the EU institutions should lead by example regarding transparency, accountability and integrity; notes that there are lessons to take from current crisis and especially the vaccination agreements, which eventually hampered citizens’ trust on the European institutions; urges the Commission to take specific measures to secure the highest transparency standards, adequately, timely and throughout all the stages of the decision procedures in the future, even if emergency procedures are followed;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 h (new)
Paragraph 1 h (new)
1 h. Highlights that MEPs and senior officials of the EU institutions should lead by example regarding transparency, accountability and integrity; suggests the strengthening of the measures to prevent incidents of revolving doors and conflicts of interests;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses that all democratic means of participation for citizens must entail an open and transparent process that takes an inclusive, participatory and well-balanced approach to citizens and stakeholders; notes that openness requires relevant adjustments to facilitate and remove bureaucracy barriers for citizens’ participation in the EU decision-making; believes that dialogue between decision- makers and civil society should be organised in such a way that the diversity of our societies is fully reflected; highlights the need for inclusion measures especially for persons with disabilities, persons from vulnerable and marginalised backgrounds and LGBTIQ people; highlights that all citizens should have equal access and possibilities to exercise their democratic rights;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Notes that in order to strengthen inclusiveness, awareness and visibility, there is a need to improve accessibility as much as possible; suggests proceeding to adjustments on the websites and all the digital presence of the EU in order to be user-friendly and presented in an easily understandable manner and language; suggests including and investing further in translation services, so that all websites of the EU support all official languages; suggests for specific technical or other adjustments to be made to all websites of the EU in order to facilitate participation of persons with disabilities, as well as persons with dyslexia or any reading disorder or difficulty, which account for 9-12% of the European population, according to relevant estimates;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Notes that the procedures for citizens’ participation in the EU decision- making should be as simplified as possible; highlights that along with the digital communication channels there is a need to empower traditional communication channels, so that citizens of low web literacy or limited web access may still have equal opportunities to the EU participation, dialogues and decision- making;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2 c. Reiterates the definition of equality according to the Chapter 3 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as equality before the law, non- discrimination, diversity, gender equality and rights of children, elderly people and people with disabilities;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that established channels for citizens to give their input on the EU decision-making process, such as the European citizens’ initiative, the right of petition to the European Parliament, recourse to the European Ombudsman, public consultations and dialogues, lack visibility, accessibility and follow-up; notes that although there has been some relevant improvement, according to the EU survey in EU citizenship, there is still the need to work with a special focus on citizens’ information and awareness on the ways they may use in order to exercise their democratic rights;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls on the Commission to prioritize citizens’ access to information on the Union’s activities in its external communication strategy;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Highlights the need for the Commission to further diversify the information and dissemination tools currently used; suggests designing programmes, actions or pilot projects where cultural and creative sectors may provide creative and innovative solutions relevant to this aim; suggests the integral incorporation of the cultural and creative sectors as they may indeed contribute the much-needed visibility for the aims relevant to EU decision-making awareness;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines the importance of fostering civic engagement and participation in a coordinated and coherent way at a local, regional, national and EU level; believes, in this connection, that the role and activities of European Commission Representations and European Parliament Liaison Offices (EPLOs) in the Member States should be strengthened, privileging the mainstreamed use of communication tools for the digital and physical participation of citizens; suggests for specific measures to be taken to improve coordination also among the EU Committees, along with a broadening of the EU channels and communication practices;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Suggests designing collaboration schemes between EPLOs and Education Ministries, so that civic engagement and participation activities are implemented in schools and education premises, focusing on youth;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Suggests the establishment of scheduled and regular public hearings on citizens’ dialogues and citizens’ participation in the EU decision-making, where citizens, stakeholders and citizens’ society representatives may take the floor and express their views on measures to improve civic engagement in the EU decision making;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4 c. Suggests the conduct of scientific social research in order to explore the parameters that the Commission should focus on in order to improve civic participation in the EU decision-making;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4 d. Suggests the scheduled and systematic conduct of evaluation assessments, where citizens may give their input and evaluate the available channels and procedures for their participation in EU dialogues and decision-making;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 f (new)
Paragraph 4 f (new)
4 f. Suggests the mainstreaming of EU communication strategies to the broad public; suggests possible collaborations with artists and persons of celebrity from the cultural, creative, media or sport sectors, as ambassadors of the messages of civic participation in the EU dialogues and decision-making; suggests exploiting visibility and audience engagement that may be effectively provided by the cultural and creative sectors;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 g (new)
Paragraph 4 g (new)
4 g. Notes the need to foster visibility with specific activities where the public and the youth tend to gather; therefore, suggests that, after the pandemic, the physical presence of the EU should be strengthened, by introducing EU logos, banners and on-the-spot accessibility and information points at the universities, establishing actions such as a European Information Week; suggests similar measures to highlight EU awareness in festivals, sport-events, concerts and cultural or other events of high attendance of the public;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses that civic education and learning about the EU is key to enabling EU citizens to make informed choices; calls on the Commission to develop a common curriculum on EU learning in order to foster objective and critical thinking on the benefits of the European Union; stresses the need to build this curriculum on the shared European values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and human rights; highlights the need to include in this curriculum clear connections between the EU and citizens’ everyday needs and possibilities;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Stresses the importance of focusing on youth in any EU learning activities; suggests that youth-engaging tools are promoted with a special focus on multimedia, new media, social media, videogames, animations, mobile apps, mobile games, quizzes and other youth- friendly formats or solutions provided by the cultural and creative sectors;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Underlines the right of citizens to have access to reliable and factual information on the European Union, its policies and decision-making processes; recognises the need to establish a neutral, independent and informative common European news centre, available in all of the EU’s official languages; considers it necessary to take measures to combat the spread of fake news, especially in times of crises, such as the current health crisis, which requires valid, reliable and timely information; calls for downstream feedback, fact-checking and moderation in relation to disinformation to be introduced into the functioning of online platforms. ;
Amendment 82 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Emphasizes that there are lessons to be learnt from the current crisis, in terms of transparency, information and dissemination, coordination and proactive approach; suggests the design of regular and scheduled announcements or information briefings open to the public through the media, so that the citizens get updated directly by the EU officials and that a feeling of proximity and safety is cultivated; stresses the need to create action plans, communication programmes and campaigns in order to educate and prepare citizens for future crisis management; suggests for such actions to be implemented as a broad EU initiative to reach out to society and through schools;
Amendment 85 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. Notes that culture provides with the tools for experience-based learning and involvement which facilitate the understanding and engagement of the public regarding the relevant messages; suggests that, in order to make people understand and get engaged, there is a need to further involve culture, creativity and the cultural and creative sectors in the communication activities relevant to the citizens’ dialogues and citizens’ participation in the EU decision-making; therefore, suggests that in the actions, programmes, pilot projects or any other EU funded activities supporting public awareness on EU-decision making cultural activities should be plainly included as eligible, including festivals, performances, concerts or any other cultural interventions either in the traditional, the digital or a hybrid form.