Language: English

Do we really want more Europe, integration and solidarity? Or should we perhaps first ask exactly what ‘more Europe, integration and solidarity’ should look like? The results of the European elections in Poland show that ‘old federalism’ is retreating.

Agora Voting is an innovative project using free software to establish social citizen networks for the development of a system for secure electronic voting. Spanish Green party Equo collaborated on this project to carry out Spain’s first real experiment with direct democracy.

In Belgium voting is compulsory. Nevertheless, more and more people choose not to vote.

In an unprecedented step towards direct democracy, Finland adopted a national Citizens’ Initiative law in March 2012. Although it has succeeded in opening debates in the national parliament on a number of issues, serious questions remain over whether citizens really have the power to effect change through the tool.

The Fifth Republic in France has become characterised by an increasingly narrow political class, while the political engagement of citizens has plummeted. The EU has not succeeded in improving these weaknesses in democracy, which can only be surmounted through a successful campaign for deep reform: a transition to the Sixth Republic.

The EU Fifth Project is creating a network of community-based movements as part of a broader transition, starting at the local level and gaining international momentum, with the aim of building a sustainable future.

The Green European Foundation aims to provide a platform for Green foundations to interact and collaborate at a European level.

While seeming solid, democracy in Sweden faces serious challenges, such as the rise of populism and voter disengagement. In this context, green foundations are well-placed to propose new initiatives that may help re-engage citizens in the political process, notably through structural changes.

An interview with Ralf Fücks, Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Given the current political climate, it behoves ecologists to thrust imagination, innovation and experimentation to the forefront of political action and thought. This requires a “benevolent distance” between the Green foundations and the Green parties.