Campaign for a European referendum
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In a joint initiative from the Union of European Federalists and the Young European Federalists, a campaign was launched targeting the gathering of one million signatures to demand a referendum to the European Constitution. The number of signatures is symbolic, since this is the number required by the Constitution concerning citizen-promoted initiatives and that hasn’t obviously any legal effect.
Once the aimed million signatures is achieved, they will be presented to the European Commission and the Parliament, as well as the head of states and governments with the objective of pressing towards the referendum, which would happen simultaneously throughout the Union and in the European elections of 2009.
With the support of, among others, Giscard d’Estaing (which presided the Convention), the campaign has now a Portuguese version of its site - https://www.europeanreferendum.eu/pt/. The national promoter is the Social Liberal Movement (www.liberal-social.org). In yesterday’s public release, it stresses that it’s position will "reinforce a European campaign about this matter, launched by 19 organizations and political parties and that already counts with more than 15 thousand signatures". About the campaign’s relevance and the proposal it makes, the release says that "the new European treaty is an important step forward in Europe’s democratic union as well as It should … be natural that the European people as a whole should have the opportunity to vote for it. … transforming the referendum in a European level debate, the national politics questions’ influence would be overcome. "
Questioned about the campaign’s relevance, the president of the Social Liberal Movement, Miguel Duarte, affirmed that if it succeed in its purposes, it would contribute towards a higher democratic commitment in the European project. "The truth is that the European Union can not be built with the backs turned to the Europeans".