With an eye on the European elections 2019, Democracy and participation were the dominating topics at the meeting of the executive board of the European Movement Germany at the beginning of the year 2019.

The members of the EM Germany executive board, chaired by EM Germany President Dr. Linn Selle, looked back at the citizens’ dialogues concerning the future of Europe and their political demands and project work for the upcoming European election campaign. On the evening before, a reception of the board took place, in which the organisations and institutional partners could exchange views. In addition to EM Germany President Linn Selle and Ambassador of Romania Emil Hurezeanu, Michael Roth Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office, welcomed the guests.

“Failure to systematically organise broader debates in society will lead to an even greater distance from the population to politics”. This contribution from the discussion on the current developments regarding the Brexit set the tone for all the political consultations of the executive board meeting. The members discussed extensively and controversially an evaluation of the 2018 citizens’ dialogues conducted by the Federal Government on the future of Europe.

Before the start of the series of dialogues, EM Germany, together with the member organisations, had developed a catalogue of criteria that set out requirements for representativeness, participation or transparency of the dialogues. The questions of whether the criteria could be fulfilled and how EM Germany can encourage institutional partners and members to continue exchanges between policy and citizens were the subject of the meeting. A decision by the executive board should follow in the next weeks.

Foster debates, reduce distance – these are also EM Germany’s tasks before the European elections. The EM Germany multiplier campaign “Make Europe Yourope” aims to use individual testimonials in its own media to promote the European elections in May. The campaign with the slogan “Make Europe Yourope” offers the member organisations a common basic design, but at the same time the possibility to communicate individual emphases and contents. EM Germany will compile all messages on its website. Initial commitments from the network of 242 member organisations have already been made.

The executive board also asked about the preparations for the upcoming consultation on the revision of the political demands 2019/20 and the EM Germany Jubilee: the EM Germany will celebrate its 70th anniversary on  13 June 2019.

The long-standing President of the Women of Europe Award Germany, Prof. Gudrun Schmidt-Kärner, introduced her newly elected deputies Sissy Thammer and Dr. Adriana Lettrari, who presented their work priorities for the current year.

As a new member organisation, the EM Germany board welcomed the association EU Women. With 242 organisations, EM Germany is well equipped to start its EU election campaigns.