[eccr] MEPs call for e-democracy and e-citizenship

Title: MEPs call for e-democracy and e-citizenship

Date: 15/05/2002 08:30

MEPs call for e-democracy and e-citizenship

In short:
55 Members of the European Parliament have tabled a motion for a Resolution to introduce e-democracy in the EU. 
  
Brief news:
The promotor of the initiative, Mr Marco Cappato (Radical, I) and 54 other MEPs from 8 different parties state that "democracy is the number 1 problem for Europe". In a motion for a Resolution they therefore ask for the EU Treaties to be amended so that: 

*    all public meetings of the EU institutions and their bodies shall be broadcast live (in audio-video) and filed in archives on the Internet; 
*    every citizen can fully enjoy his rights of European citizenship also through the Internet, such as regarding EP elections, complaints to the Ombudsman and access to the European Court of Justice; 
*    appeals to the EU institutions and to Member States to promote online voting and voting in "supervised e-voting stations" as from the 2004 European Parliamentary elections. 

On 14 May MEPs also approved an annex to the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure listing all the different kinds of parliamentary and other official EU documents sent to the EP that should be available to the public from June 2002 in electronic form. It includes Parliamentary session documents, committee reports, research studies, press releases, rules relating to the Statute for Members and attendance records of Members both in plenary and in committee. 

[Remark by EurActiv: it is strange that a group which promotes having all documents online, does not have its own Resolution readily available on the Internet] 

Source: http://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/cgint.exe/?targ=1&204&OIDN=1503423