My Vote Counts! The Citizens’ Initiative in Europe
My Vote Counts! The Citizens’ Initiative wants to preserve and strengthen the bond with Europe. We want to keep the national borders open for goods and free movement (labour migrants). European elections don’t feel alive, because citizens have the sense that they have hardly any influence over European policy. In the European Parliament, the Netherlands holds 29 of the 705 seats. This parliament is elected through European elections in the member states. The Netherlands therefore has limited influence in Europe, partly given the fact that not every one of those 29 seats is held by a pro-European politician.
My Vote Counts! wants to win one or more of those 29 seats, so that we can also spread our ideas at the European level.
European Council versus European Parliament
However, it is the European Council that actually holds power, and citizens have hardly any influence over it. To further improve the democratic structure in Europe, My Vote Counts! The Citizens’ Initiative also wants to improve European support by introducing binding referendums at the European level. This would bring more direct influence back to European citizens. We aim to build support for this on a per-nation basis.
Stronger together
But more is needed! The European Union must expand its influence in areas where we are stronger together than alone. Other problems must be solved by the member states themselves. A good example is migration/asylum; that is a European problem. Here, a clear distinction must be made between labour migrants and asylum seekers fleeing war and violence. In an open economy like that of the Netherlands, we need those labour migrants to maintain or improve economic growth in our country.
A large part of the European Community’s budget goes to agriculture and horticulture. This must become less, and different. How are we going to earn our money in the next 30 years? Just as nationally, we must also have an economic vision for the future at the European level.
- A strong Europe is needed as a bloc against Russia, China, India and the US
- 5 problems in Europe you could solve with a binding referendum
