Start of the project “European Public Sphere”
At the end of September the time had come: The European Public Sphere Project’s first dome talk took place. Gerhard Schuster, co-founder of the European Public Sphere, explains how this initiative came to life and what it is about.
A few days before our double opening in Wels/Upper Austria on 29 September and Vienna on 1 October 2017, the French President Emmanuel Macron presented his "Initiative for Europe" at the Sorbonne University in Paris. He spoke of the necessity of "re-founding a sovereign, united and democratic Europe" and suggested the establishment of democratic conventions. Europe’s key issues were to be discussed in a Europe-wide deliberation process.
This initiative from the group of European Heads of State highlights a necessity to which we respond from the basis of civil society with our "European Public Sphere" project.
At our first event in Wels, I talked about how we want to organize " small mini-convents on the future of Europe, with twenty to thirty people. Of course, we cannot set up an entire convention process as Emmanuel Macron, for example, calls for. But we can project an idea of the future, of how we can also organize ourselves. We can show that you can easily do it!"
Video from the first Dome Talk in Wels on 29 September 2017
“We want to organize small mini-convents on the future of Europe, with twenty to thirty people. Of course, we cannot set up an entire convention process as Emmanuel Macron, for example, calls for. But we can project an idea of the future, of how we can also organize ourselves. We can show that you can easily do it!"
That was the starting point. With our geodesic dome, we want to visit different places in Europe during the next years and talk with the people. People who are already active in projects and organizations and have concrete ideas for Europe, people who have experience in their professional and life fields that must not be ignored when it comes to the shaping issues in Europe and people who, as European citizens, want to be democratically responsible for the further development of our community.
For our events we have various discussion formats in mind – with the “Dome Talk” at its core. A free and open discussion in public space with a manageable number of participants in which everyone is asked to listen to the inputs that the topic or question we focus on demands.
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However, the conversations we conduct in this way should also be documented for everybody who was not present. Only in this way, the concrete discussion on site can become available to the whole and be incorporated into the process of re-founding Europe. The first step will be video and audio documentaries. The aim is to additionally evaluate and publish them. This is the idea of the European Public Sphere. The initiative was taken through discussions of a group of people who, for a long time, have been thinking about a social renewal of Europe and are also active in various working contexts.
Two organizations have now taken over the sponsorship of the European Public Sphere. On the one hand, the initiative company EuroVision. Its aim is to deepen European integration from the starting point of a new social architecture for the common home Europe. One of its current projects is the European Credit Initiative, which stimulates a European path for business and money.
The second supporting organisation is Democracy International. Its aim is to strengthen direct democracy and civic participation worldwide and at all political levels. In Europe, Democracy International is working hard to improve the democratic instrument of the "European Citizens' Initiative", which is also enshrined in the EU Treaty and advocates for a democratic relaunch of the EU.
With our project, we want to create the space to introduce our ideas, but also to get to know other visions in order to bring these ideas together - openly and publicly. In this sense, we do not want to be an assembly of organizations and institutions but of people with thoughts and ideas! In this way, we want to try to collect the building blocks for Europe’s further development.
However, this further development also means a further development of the Treaties of the European Union. Article 48 of the EU Treaty provides, as an ordinary procedure for amending the Treaty, that a Convention is to be set up for this purpose - Following the example of the two Conventions 1999/2000 on the drafting of a "Charter of Fundamental Rights" and 2002/2003 on the drafting of a Constitution for Europe.
On 1 October we continued on Karlsplatz in Vienna...
We see something in this institution that points in the right direction and it is not unlikely that such a European Convention will be set up in the next European Parliament legislature (2019-2024). However, it will be crucial, that qualified and supported initiatives and proposals from the citizens have a relevant and binding impact on the process of the European renewal!
After a sufficiently long phase of discussion, all citizens should then be able to vote in a Europe-wide referendum on Europe’s new legal basis.
With our initiative European Public Sphere, we want to start bringing together the substance of such a renewal process.
Some impressions from Wels and Vienna:
Our first dome talk has already shown that many people were inspired by the project and the first cooperations could be envisaged. Interest to simultaneously travel with other domes or to work in several "European Public Sphere" groups in different regions at the same time was shown. Let’s see how things develop.
What wants to gather under the roof of the "European Public Sphere" should have as a common denominator the constructive work on a positive development of Europe in open and free discussions in public space and that the fruits of these discussions are brought together so that they can flow into the process of re-founding Europe.