Notre Europe's viewpoint | 30/08/2006 

The European Commission's plan D gives Member States free rein to organise national debates during the "pause for reflection"� decreed by the Heads of State and Government on 16 June 2005. This EU Council decision is well understood to be nothing more than the gloss put on the unspoken disagreement regarding the continuation of the ratification process for the Constitutional Treaty and hints at a crisis without putting a name to it. The question is how to prevent this period not only from being perceived in vastly different ways from one country to the next but more importantly from being no more than an empty shell, an irrelevance in most of them. The risk is considerable and the stakes are high.

Notre Europe's analysis of the 29 May results in (The French "no" Vote of 29 May 2005: Understand, Act) actually shows that one of the main reasons for the "no"� victory is linked with the absence of national debates on European issues outside such intense moments as referendums. The improvement of democratic practices in the emerging European arena can wait no longer. Sixty years ago European diplomats were paving the way towards the integration of the European States in a realm of peace. At the onset of the 21st century, it falls to European democracy to gather the peoples from the Union around a shared political vision.

A judicious use of the pause for reflection must be a priority for the European Institutions as well as for the Member States. This supposes the organisation of debates - but not any old debate. Neither the referendum, nor the accompanying debates can as such guarantee the quality of collective deliberation. They must first and foremost facilitate a better dialogue between democratic instances at European and national (right down to local) levels. The adoption of a "Citizens Compact"� as proposed by EPIN open new avenues towards improving this dialogue.

The debates must also lead to a genuine collective deliberation, that is to say, in Professors Fishkin and Luskin's words, "pondering the claims and counterclaims for and against public policy alternatives"�. We have at our command innovative mechanisms for a participative democracy with which to organise civic deliberations, on a national or European scale. In "The Democratisation of European democracy - The way forward for a quality, inclusive and trans-national debate"�, Notre Europe signposts zones of possible improvement to both current and new forms of civic debate.

After piloting such an experiment during the referendum campaign, Notre Europe publishes its report on the exercise and its wealth of lessons (The European Constitution and Deliberation: the Example of Deliberative Focus Groups ahead of the French Referendum of 29 May 2005).