Time to elect a European Constituent Assembly without asking anyone's permission

The author contends that official EU democratic reforms are perpetually deferred and insufficient, leaving citizens without political agency. To counter the 'technocratic tide' and intergovernmental governance, the text proposes 'hacking' the 2019 European elections by organizing parallel, unofficial elections for a European Constituent Assembly. This assembly, consisting of approximately 200 representatives and randomly selected citizens, would serve as a civic power to draft a 'wiki-constitution' and initiate a wider process of citizens' assemblies. The goal is to establish a bottom-up democratic infrastructure that forces institutional change and offers a genuine alternative to either submission to powerful Member States or the abandonment of European integration.

• The author argues that the European Union's current governance is characterized by a 'technocratic tide' where decision-making has shifted away from the Parliament toward informal groups like the Eurogroup, secretive 'trialogue' negotiations, and intergovernmental agreements such as the Fiscal Compact and the EU-Turkey agreement.
• The document proposes a performative act of civil disobedience for the 2019 elections: establishing unofficial ballot boxes and online elections to choose a Constituent Assembly of approximately 200 representatives.
• The proposed Constituent Assembly would not possess formal legal legitimacy to decide a constitution but would act as a 'civic power' to develop a 'wiki-constitution' and organize town-hall debates across Europe to influence formal treaty changes.
• The assembly's work would focus on three core questions: ensuring democratic decision-making that accounts for the common interest and external impacts, maximizing direct citizen involvement, and determining which legislative competences should reside at the European level.

APA

Milanese, L. M. N. (2018). Time to elect a European Constituent Assembly without asking anyone's permission. Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/time-to-elect-a-european-constituent-assembly-without-asking-anyones-permission/

Chicago

Milanese, Lorenzo Marsili, Niccolò. Time to elect a European Constituent Assembly without asking anyone's permission. Green European Journal, 2018. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/time-to-elect-a-european-constituent-assembly-without-asking-anyones-permission/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Milanese |first1=Lorenzo Marsili, Niccolò |title=Time to elect a European Constituent Assembly without asking anyone's permission |publisher=Green European Journal |date=15 January 2018 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/time-to-elect-a-european-constituent-assembly-without-asking-anyones-permission/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{milanese2018time, author = {Milanese, Lorenzo Marsili, Niccolò}, title = {{Time to elect a European Constituent Assembly without asking anyone's permission}}, publisher = {Green European Journal}, year = {2018}, month = jan, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/time-to-elect-a-european-constituent-assembly-without-asking-anyones-permission/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }