Open letter to MEPs: Commission proposal to designate 2013 as “European Year of Citizens”

The Liaison Group of the EESC has written an open letter to the members of the European Parliament, calling on them to ensure that the Year, which was proposed in August last year, will have the scope to really address the many important issues linked to citizenship of the EU.

The letter recalls that democratic citizenship implies that citizens have a say in the EU policy-shaping and decision-making processes by electing their representatives to the European Parliament. With the prospect of the upcoming elections in 2014 and at a time when many citizens feel the European Union is remote from their concerns, the stakes could not be higher.

The signatory organisations believe that the European institutions' difficulties to give a strong and coordinated political and institutional response to the current financial, economic and social crisis and the mounting predominance of the use of intergovernmental method in European processes can partly account for this civic disaffection towards the EU.

To read the full text of the letter you can download it here. Do not hesitate to circulate it to people or organisations who may be interested.