Here are the complete set of agreements reached during European Spring’s Provisional Governing Council’s meeting last month in Lisbon:
 

Lisbon, April 26, 2018

2^st meeting of the Provisional Council

 
Participants:
DiEM25 (EU); DemA (Italy); Génération.s (France); LIVRE (Portugal); Razem (Poland); Alternativet (Denmark); MeRA25 (Greece); Bündnis DiEM25 (Germany)
Observers:
Actúa, Barcelona en Comú, Die Linke, Nouvelle Donne, Parti communiste français (PCF), Party of the European Greens, Party of the European Left, and Transform!
Co-chairs:
Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk and Lorenzo Marsili

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AGREED CONCLUSIONS

1. Discussion on relations with other movements, parties, and 2019 lists

The Council assessed the situation regarding emerging political offers in the progressive field towards the 2019 European elections. We recalled that for several months we have been issuing invitations to all our meetings – which are always public and open – as well as to private meetings in order to build bridges and cooperation. We aspire to two things: unity and coherence.
The Council took stock of the positive response received from Gregor Gysi on behalf of the European Left to our proposal of organising a joint meeting to look at cooperating ahead of the 2019 elections. We also took notice of the negative response received from Bloco de Esquerda to attend the Lisbon meeting, which was partly corrected by the response received jointly by Mélenchon-Iglesias-Martins to an earlier personal letter issued by Yanis Varoufakis and Luigi de Magistris to them. We agreed to issue another letter to both Gregor Gysi and Martins-Mélenchon-Iglesias to suggest again a joint meeting and to do so publicly (no secret diplomacy). Should such a meeting be organised, the Council will decide on appointing its representatives.

2. Voting on a name for our Transnational List

We voted on a name for our Transnational List. Several names were proposed:

• European Spring
• Demos
• DiEM25
• Hope is Back
• Together for Europe
• Republic of Europe

The Council unanimously voted for “European Spring”, which now becomes the official names of our transnational list. An agreed logo will be defined ASAP, with both Alternativet and DiEM25 working on first proposals. We ask all the partners to secure the domains with this name translated into their languages.

3. Registering the Transnational List

Review of current conditions which political parties and associated foundations must fulfil to be eligible for public funding:

• respect of EU values (Article 2 TEU)
• only political parties (and no longer individuals) will be taken into account towards the minimum representation requirements for European political party funding
• member parties must be represented in ¼ of Member States (i.e. 7) in either the EP, national parliaments, regional parliaments or regional assemblies
• member parties cannot be members of another European political party
• EU member parties need to have displayed the logo and programme of the European political party in the 12 months preceding the final date for submission of funding applications
• derogation: application for funding in the financial year of 2019, the Authorising Officer only requests this evidence for the period from two months after the entry into force of the Amending Regulation (date of publication in the Official Journal of the EU: TBC)

Distribution key of funds: 10% of funds to be shared equally between European political parties, and 90% of funds to be distributed based on vote percentage, post-election
Note: the fielding of a Spitzenkandidat is not legally tied to being a registered European party, but it would enhance our campaign actions.

4. Code of Ethics

We discussed and amended the code of ethics binding European Spring and all our candidates. The code was unanimously approved.

5. Communication, June launch & the general debate about campaign

We agreed that we would create a joint Campaign Subgroup that will coordinate the June pan-European launch campaign.
The events that will mark the beginning of the 2019 May Elections Campaign are as follows:
3 June – Frankfurt / Germany
13 June – Milano / Italy
16 June – Denmark
23 June – Warsaw / Poland
1 July – Grenoble / France
Possible addition of Brussels and/or Berlin. Deadline to confirm participants, information about venues and program for each event is May 15.
We agreed to develop a common website by next May and share the cost. DiEM25 will present a first option ASAP.
We discussed the importance of the whole communication and electoral campaign throughout 2019, favouring the “citizens assemblies” format to engage a wider public in a common debate about political priorities for a transformed Europe. Eleonora de Majo (DemA) and Paola Pietrandrea (DiEM25 – France) will table a concrete proposal by the next Council meeting.

6. Organogram

We produced an organogram of the different subgroups working with the Council and the individuals composing them. All partners are asked to double-check and complete the proposed draft.

7. Discussion on the preamble for our common Manifesto

We agreed to draft the preamble following the “beta version” of our common political program.

8. Key points of our common Manifesto

We discussed the early draft of our common political platform. We assessed the different pillars and policies and gave a mandate to the Council’s Agenda Subgroup to work on a new version for the Council to approve at its next meeting in one month’s time.
We unanimously agreed that the draft to be approved at the next meeting will be considered a “beta version” and sent for consultation to all our members as well as wider social movements, NGOs and citizens, during the months of June and July. In the month of August our Agenda Subgroup will condense the feedback received in a final version of the document, which will be approved by the Council in September and put to a vote to all our members immediately thereafter.

9. Next Council meeting

The next meeting will be hosted in Paris at the very beginning of June at the latest.

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