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The rapid changes in economic, social and security policy as well as the upcoming enlargement pose a challenge to the European Union and its institutions. Incisive reforms are necessary. This is the background for assigning the task to the Convention of preparing a draft for a forthcoming European constitution. With the Project "Europe's democratic challenge: Actively shaping European environmental policy" Ecologic follows this process from an environmental point of view.

Due to the upcoming enlargement the European Union is facing dramatic reforms. The current reform mechanism of Intergovernmental Conferences (IGC) - as Nice proved once more - has reached its limits. Thus, the Heads of States and Governments decided during the European Council of Laeken to put into place a Convention on the future of Europe. The Convention has been asked to prepare the next IGC and to pave the way for the elaboration of a European constitution. In order to cope with the expectations of the citizens with regard to the EU's capacity to act,as well as to its transparency and democracy, the Convention is of vital importance in that it gives the citizens a chance to actively discuss the future of the European Union. Therefore, the vision of the project "Europe's democratic challenge: Actively shaping European environmental policy" encompasses a series of events which aim at initiating and deepening a debate in the civil society on the future of Europe. The starting point for the discussions will be European environmental policy. This policy is characterised by its relation to the every day life of each citizen on the one hand, and by its high degree of integration on the other. This means in practice that Member States have transferred important parts of their sovereignty to the European level. In order to minimise the gap between the level of decision and the level of implementation, it is of vital importance to involve the people for whom European decisions are a concern. The planned events will be prepared using, and accompanied by, an initial background paper prepared by Ecologic and ongoing discussion papers. On the bases of these papers, viewpoints and options will be elaborated in discussion with the civil society. The results of these discussions will be summarised at the end of the event series in a Memorandum that is directed towards the Convention and which will be presented at the conclusive event in Brussels.