New Elected Official: Local Councillor for Volt Belgium in Tervuren
Volt Belgium & Volt Europa proudly announce a newly elected official in Tervuren, Belgium: Tracey D’Afters
Empowering European Democracy
It’s time to create a more democratic EU that people can truly trust. Our vision is to elevate citizens’ interests and place their voices at the heart of decision making by creating stronger links between Europeans and their institutions. Through the European Democracy Act, we pledge to create a democratic system that is genuinely representative, accountable and responsible to citizens’ needs.
Volt has developed a stringent policy programme to strengthen democratic rules for European political parties. These include lobbying regulations, increasing citizens’ participation in the policymaking processes and instruments to combat corruption. In our efforts to fight the dangerous democratic backsliding inMember States, we will fight to strengthen the protection of journalists and oppose disinformation and illegal data sharing.
News News about Empowering European Democracy
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Fairer voting in European elections
Volt wants to move towards a single constituency in which voters elect representatives from transnational lists and the number of MEPs elected is as close as possible to the proportion of votes received. Furthermore, we will ensure voting rights for all mobile EU citizens in their country of origin and their host country after 2 years of residency.
Empowering citizens in politics
Volt aims to bring about real citizen participation by empowering Europeans to initiate policies, reducing the number of signatures for a citizens’ initiative and improving online signature collection. Ensuring citizen involvement in policy-making will also mean creating a more trustworthy and transparent political landscape by introducing stricter lobbying regulations and improving public access to information.
Standing up for rule of law
Volt will address threats to democracies in member states and accelerate infringement procedures to protect democratic values, human rights or the rule of law. We will ensure that the EU has robust mechanisms to protect its founding values, fight corruption and ensure the safety of journalists.
Information across borders
Volt wants to strengthen pan-EU collaboration in key areas to improve access to information across borders. We support the creation of a strong network of European public broadcasters and remove geo-blocking so that content is not limited to one country. We will also cultivate a financially sustainable ecosystem of open-source software that reduces our dependence on volunteer efforts for critical IT infrastructure.
The 5+1 Challenges
Volt has defined 5+1 fundamental Challenges that need to be tackled in each European country and in Europe as a whole.
Why 5 + 1 Challenges?
The 5 Challenges are basically the same for every country, but their implementation can be adapted on the national level to take into account local realities.
The +1 Challenge – our proposal to reform and strengthen the EU – is identical across all our national programmes.
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01
Smart State
Education and digitalisation are key elements of the 21st century
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02
Economic Renaissance
An innovative economy must be the engine of society's progress
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03
Social Equality
No-one should be left behind - no matter their gender, income, religion. or origin
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04
Global Balance
Europe needs to assume responsibility for its role in global challenges
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05
Citizen Empowerment
People must be empowered to influence politics beyond elections alone
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+1
EU Reform
We love the EU - this doesn't mean there is no room for improvement