21 Amendments of Kostas CHRYSOGONOS related to 2016/2008(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 a (new)
Citation 1 a (new)
– having regard to the Treaty on European Union, in particular articles 2, 3, 6, 9, 10 and 11, and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in particular articles 8-16, 18-20 and 24,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 b (new)
Citation 1 b (new)
– having regard to the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union, to the European Convention on Human Rights and to the European Social Charter,
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas following the recent crises and deadlocks in the economic, political and social fields that have severely affected individual Member States and the Union as a whole, citizens’' relationship with politics has become increasingly strained, as the public feels that it is not represented adequately; whereas the engagement and involvement of citizens and civil society in democratic life are essential for the good functioning of democracy and for the legitimacy and accountability of both national and EU representational systems;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas in order to regain legitimacy and rebuild the trust of the European citizens, the EU should first of all redefine its priorities and objectives by giving primacy to the promotion of civil and social rights as enshrined in the Treaties and the EU Charter of fundamental rights;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes e-democracy, which is defined as the support and enhancement of traditionalrepresentative democracy by means of information and communication technology (ICT), and is meant to complement democratic processes by adding elements of citizens’' enablempowerment through different online activities that include, amongst others, e-government, e- governance, e-participation and e-voting;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that the purpose of e- democracy is to facilitate democratic practice, not to establish an alterna substitutive democratic system or to promote a certain type of democracy to the detriment of the current democratic habits; reaffirms however the need to revise the democratic framework of the Union by strengthening its reliability, effectiveness, transparency, participatory nature and social character in order to address adequately the current shortcomings and, at the same time, to enable e-democracy to express its full potential;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Points to the importance of e-voting as a system offering many potential advantages, in particular for young people, people with reduced mobility and people living or working in a Member State of which they are not a citizen or in a third country; stresses however the need to address the difficult relation of older citizens with e-democracy and e-voting, bearing in mind their growing weight in EU's demographic structure; stresses furthermore that there are currently unresolved IT-security issues for e-voting and underlines, in particular, the principle that every citizen should be able to verify the counting and tabulating of votes;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Considers that the participation to democratic processes is founded, first of all, on the effective and non- discriminatory access to information and knowledge; calls therefore on the EU and the Member States to develop adequate policies to attain the universal access to the internet and to recognise internet access as a fundamental right; in addition, calls on the EU to promote common policies intended to bridge the digital divide within and among the Member States along all its lines (wealth, gender, age, geographical and social conditions);
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Calls moreover on the EU and the Member States to refrain from adopting unnecessary measures aimed at arbitrarily restricting access to internet and the exercise of basic human rights, such as disproportionate censorships measures or criminalization of legitimate expression of criticism and dissent;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States and the EU to provide educational and technical means for improving ICT competences and digital access for all EU citizens in order to bridge the digital divide (e-inclusion), for the ultimate benefit of democracy; encourages the Member States to integrate the acquisition of digital skills into school curricula and supports the development of networks with universities and educational institutions to promote research on and implementation of new participation tools; calls also on the EU and the Member States to promote programmes and policies aimed at developing a critical and conscious appreciation of the use of ICT such as, for instance, awareness raising campaigns concerning the rights and possible risks in the digital sphere;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Urges the Member States and the EU to deliver affordable and high-speed digital infrastructure, particularly in peripheral regions and, rural and economically less developed areas, and to ensure that equality between citizens is guaranteed; recommends to the Commission to foresee resources for projects aimed at improving digital infrastructures in the realm of social and solidarity economy; recommends that public libraries and schools be appropriately resourced and that IT infrastructure be accessible to all citizens;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Encourages the Member States and the EU to promote and support mechanisms that enable the participation of the public and theircivil society and its interaction with governments and EU institutions; highlights that ICT should facilitate access to information, transparency, active listening and debate for better decision- making;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to realise the full potential of the European Citizens’' Initiative through a wider use of ICT, in order to make this important tool more user-friendly and widely publicised; believes that the use of new technology could improve, in particular, the online signature collection system; regrets, however, that in its follow-up to the European Parliament resolution on the European Citizens' Initiative, adopted on 2 February 2016, the Commission stated "that after only three years after its effective entry into application, it is at this point too early to launch a legislative revision of the Regulation" and that from the establishment of the ECI only three initiatives were deemed admissible and no one has received an appropriate follow- up; therefore stresses once more the need to revise Regulation 211/2011 in order to encourage the Commission to have a less restrictive approach on the legal admissibility of an ECI and to allow a successful initiative to have an appropriate and concrete follow-up;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises that several Commission processes, such as online public consultations, e-participation activities and impact assessments, could benefit from a wider use of new technologies in order to increase public participation and the transparency of the EU institutions and enhance European governance; at the same time, asks the EU to address the deep concerns regarding the lack of transparency that characterises a growing number of EU policy areas such as, for instance, trade negotiations, economic governance of the eurozone and negotiations of readmission agreements with third countries; in this respect asks also to the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament to strongly limit the recourse to Trilogues in the ordinary legislative procedure, while guaranteeing, at the same time, their full transparency by way of the electronic publication of all relevant documents in dedicated and accessible databases;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Commission to expand and develop e-participation in the Digital Single Market Strategy; recommends furthermore to the Commission to focus on open source solutions that can be rolled out easily across the digital single market;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Stresses the need to protect, as a matter of priority, privacy and personal data when using e-democracy tools and to foster a more secure internet environment, particularly with regard to information and data security, including the "right to be forgotten", the setting- up of secure digital public registers and the validation of electronic signatures in order to prevent fraudulent multiple interactions, in line with the European and international human rights standards and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice; underlines that security issues must not become a deterrent to the inclusion of individuals and groups in democratic processes as well as a justification to unnecessarily restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Recalls the essential role that whistle-blowers play – generally through internet – in exposing corruption, fraud, mismanagement and other wrongdoing that threaten public health and safety, financial integrity, human rights, the environment and the rule of law, while ensuring, at the same time, the public right to information; calls once again on the EU institutions and the Member States to adopt effective rules regarding whistle-blowers' protection in line with the European and international standards and guidelines in this field; in addition, calls on the Commission to set up a common legislation to protect whistle- blowers, witnesses and persons who cooperate with the judicial process and to establish a specific fund aimed at giving protection to the person lodging the complaint, in order to support legal fees, medical bills, psycho-social counselling as well as a resettlement programme, taking into account that whistleblowing and filling of complaints generally cause the loss of job or deeply worsen the working conditions;
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Encourages public representatives to participate actively in existing and fully independent forums, with a view to stimulating discussion and exchanging opinions and proposals with citizens (e- parliament);
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Welcomes its initiatives in the field of e-participation and its frontrunner position; supports continuous efforts to strengthen its representative character and encourages its Members to make wider use of new technologies in order to develop them to their full potential while taking into account the necessary limits imposed by the right to privacy and to the protection of personal data;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Calls on the EU and its institutions to be open to more experimentation with new e-participation methods such as crowdsourcing at EU level and at national, regional and local level, taking into account the best practices already developed within the Member States;