Brussels, 11/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Citizens' access to information is essential in the democratic process. In its White Paper on governance (July 2001), the Commission did not take into account the urgent need to inform its citizens in order to encourage them to vote in the European elections, while having the necessary information about what the elections are about. (This would help to increase the level of voter participation in the 2004 European elections). In a press statement Tony Venables, Director of ECAS (Euro Citizen Action Service), explained that the Information for the European Citizen report outlines how ECAS intends to remedy this under-information for citizens and is proposing to introduce a new Article on the right to information for citizens in the Treaty of the EU. ECAS will be sending its proposal to Jean-Luc Dehaene, Vice President of the European Convention during the European Civil Society Forum on July 14 in Brussels.
Mr Venables explained that the new Article has avoided putting too much emphasis on centralisation and had instead stressed the importance of the nation states and regions. All EU citizens had the right to be informed about the activities of the European institutions; action by the institutions should complement efforts by Member States and regional authorities to inform citizens about the Union; the Council action in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251, shall adopt information programmes to inform citizens on their collective and individual rights and in particular on the Charter of fundamental rights (which must be binding, explained Mr Venables), as well as information about legislation and policies being prepared; the EP, Council and the Commission shall elaborate in their respective rules of procedure specific provisions regarding the right to information.
Tony Venables explained that only 34% of the European population were aware of their rights as Europeans, 18% said they were well-informed about enlargement but a majority did not want to participate in the debate about the future of Europe simply because they weren't well enough informed. European citizens expected the EC to better respond to trans-national kinds of problems, such as GMOs and globalisation, Mr Venables added. The ECAS director considers that such Article is necessary because it represents a link between the institutions and citizens and that a general EU information strategy appeared to be lacking. This shortfall, he added, could be made good with a legal basis that would make information policy more stable. Mr Venables pointed out that the budget allocated for information only represented EUR 4 per person every year, which was too little. He stressed that this right to information should be an integral part of the European citizen framework. (The report by Richard Upson, former official at DG Internal Market at the European Commission, is available in English in Brussels at ECAS. Tel: 02 548 04 90. E-mail: admin@ecas.org.Internet: http://www.ecas.org ).