May 2021 – A historical moment for European citizens

Post author:Voters Without Borders
Post published:May 12, 2021

The very much awaited Conference on the Future of Europe started on the same day European citizens celebrate Europe Day — 9 May. On this occasion, speeches were made to praise European accomplishments since the Schuman Declaration, but also to hear citizens’ expectations about what remains to be done in the European Union.

Voters Without Borders, a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), takes this opportunity seriously and thinks you should too. We aim for full political rights for European citizens on the move and would like to recall the utmost importance of cross-border voting. Watch this 45-second of video to learn more about us:

The Conference on the Future of Europe should thus place citizens’ rights at the centre and discuss universal suffrage in less nationalistic and more European terms. Transnational voting and freedom of movement will only be properly restored together or not at all.

We are part of a coalition of different ECIs and stakeholders that demand to be heard in the Conference on the Future of Europe. We have campaigned to launch “EU Sign Day” [1] on the 9^th of May to make European citizens aware of their rights to take part in European democracy. We have conducted an opinion poll on the European citizens’ awareness of ECIs but results suggest that only 2.4% know about this instrument [2] far less than claimed by Eurobarometer (see comparison below). Voters Without Borders has contributed to this effort by publishing a Policy Paper on ECIs [3] which after 20 years are still not working properly, whilst we need this agenda-setting instrument to claim full political rights. That is why we ask the European Institutions to launch an awareness raising campaign and reforms so everyone knows about ECIs and can sign them.

Source: Eurobarometer’s survey poll on EU Citizenship and Democracy, 2020 [4]

Source: EU Sign Day’s survey poll, 2021

Let’s make your voices heard by signing the Voters Without Borders’ initiative and join our next fortnightly meeting on Tuesday 18^th May at this link on zoom [5]. We will discuss the European Commission’s consultation phase on reforming both Directives 93/109/EC and 94/80/EC about the European mobile citizens’ rights to vote and stand in European and municipal elections [6]. It is another opportunity to bring our voices together and propose ideas on how the European Commission can improve legislation.

[1] See the website: https://eusignday.eu/.

[2] The data used is based on an online survey conducted by YouGov Deutschland GmbH with 5,094 respondents between 28 April 2021 and 4 May 2021 in Germany (n= 2,057), Italy (n= 1,034), Finland (n= 1,002) and Portugal (n= 1,001). The results were weighted and are representative of the respective country’s population aged 18 and over.

[3] Read our Policy Paper here.

[4] https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/s2260_485_eng?locale=en.

[5] Meeting ID 915 8210 7409, Passcode 062836
If you would like to participate, please register here.

[6] See the consultation here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12733-Elections-inclusives-en-Europe-permettre-aux-citoyens-de-l%E2%80%99UE-qui-resident-dans-un-autre-pays-de-l%E2%80%99UE-d%E2%80%99exercer-leur-droit-de-participation-aux-elections-municipales/public-consultation_en.