News > Follow-up ECC National Consultations, 21 – 22 of March 2009
Follow-up ECC National Consultations, 21 – 22 of March 2009
The last ECC National Consultations took place on the 21st – 22nd of March in Austria (Vienna), France (Paris), Hungary (Budapest), Ireland (Dublin), Lithuania (Vilnius), Malta (Balzan), Slovenia (Ljubljana), Sweden (Örebro) and the United Kingdom (London).
Between 30 and 130 citizens had been randomly selected for each consultation to gather together and discuss or develop recommendations for EU policy makers.
The results of the discussions were partly very similar and focussed on the same concerns like “supporting sustainable energy resources”, “strengthen EU environmental protection measures”, “health protection”, “problems of employing” and “ensuring social security”. The attendees of the national consultation in London came to the result that they would like to get more involved into the democratic decision making processes and a Hungarian recommendation foresaw the need of a standardized tax system.
National politicians attended the consultations and obtained information about the citizens concerns in order to make their voices heard on the European level.
Irelands Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr. Dick Roche TD, said that “today is not a day for political speeches. Today is a day for political listening. We will listen with great interest – not just to what you say here this weekend but what comes out of this process”.
The participants experienced the consultations in many different ways. Some were just happy to attend, others relieved that they could bring forward their opinions or some just surprised about the interesting discussions they had.
Susan Dawson from the United Kingdom, participant at the London national consultation, realized how complex decision making processes are. "A lot of us have felt that we could contribute more than we thought. The last session felt like what the EU must be like. This is why decisions take so long to make" she concluded afterwards.
For more information on the European Citizens Consultation 2009, please click here
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