December 12-13, 2003
ERC@IGC in Brussels
Activists from the European Referendum Campaign organised an event with a 7m high inflatable display. It symbolises the EU Constitution with an arrow pointing on it, demanding: "only by fair referenda". It stood right in front of the Justus-Lipsius building at Schuman Place where the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) took place. During that event the political leaders tried to finish the negotiations about the upcoming constitution - without success.
Watch the Slide show: In front of the Justus-Lipsius bulding in Brussels
The display visited Brussels exactly half a year after our media event during the last session of the Convention on the Future of Europe. At that time the inflatable constitution was placed right in front of the European Parliament.
Again the event was organised with the help of activists from WIT Belgium. The mayor of Brussels gave us the permission for this remarkable place. Europe's top-level politicians and all the media couldn't avoid noticing us. The cars with all delegations went past the display while passing the Schuman Place on their arrivals and departures.
- Brussels at night ...
The European Broadcast Union (EBU) and several TV-stations had a lot of work to place their cameras in such a way that our display couldn't be seen as a background of their reports. Thank you very much indeed!
Nevertheless, it attracted media-attention, interviews were given, the display was on air at several TV-stations (UK, Greece, Malta, Belgium...) and pictures were used in some newspapers and online media like the Times, BBC homepage (and - of course - in the euobserver).
WIT Belgium arranged an appointment with the Prime Minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt. He intended to come to the display to give a toast to the citizens of Europe supporting the demand of the ERC. But as the IGC collapsed he decided not to come.
Two days in the rain and fighting with the wind lay behind us. We had fun during the event and also presented the Europe wide "day of action" (December 6, 2003) to several passers-by.
The collapse of the IGC proved that the EU Constitution could only be legitimised democratically by fair referenda in all countries concerned and not in undemocratic top-level negotiations. We hear very often that the people are not able to decide over this important issue themselves.
Are the EU governments able to handle our future? In the backrooms of the European Council once again a treaty failed - as already in Nice, where obviously only an insufficient compromise was drawn. To overcome the deadlock the peoples of Europe must be involved into this process!
