Good morning everyone,

I would like to thank the office of the European Ombudsman for organizing the event. And I would like to thank you very much for joining me for this short presentation on the G1000. The G1000 was a citizens initiative that took place little over a year ago, right here in Brussels. Just like the other initiatives we have heard of or will hear about this morning, the G1000 shows the extraordinary commitment of ordinary citizens to their democracy.

What we did was really quite amazing: We gathered 704 randomly chosen ordinary Belgian citizens from both language groups and had them discuss important social, economic and political issues. These were the citizens that are often considered to be politically uninterested and distrusting, but these are also the citizens that willingly accepted an invitation to spend day off to contribute to the public cause.

The G1000 succeeded in what was believed to be impossible, and here are some of the figures:

• We put a long manifesto online, and in just 10 days time, 10.000 citizens signed it.
• In 3 months time, we went from a group of 7 organizers meeting around a kitchen table to a massive citizens movement of more than 800 volunteers solely focused on organizing a large citizens’ summit.
• And in 6 months time, we raised more than 500.000 euro through crowd funding to finance the project.

And all of these things happened under the worst of circumstances. At the moment the G1000 took place, the coalition formation was going on for over 500 days. You heard it right: we did not have a government for over one and a half year because the political parties did not succeed in putting aside their differences and working towards a common goal. For over a year and a half, nationalist tensions were rising, and the political system was completely deadlocked because the Dutch and French-speakers in Belgium were thought to be so different that any compromise was impossible.

But that one day in November proved that even the deepest of conflicts can be overcome. It showed the resilience of democracy. It showed that citizens can look beyond their own viewpoints. And it showed that citizens can find solutions even for the most controversial political issues.

It might be good to highlight some examples of the radical thinking they did:

• They proposed to impose a tax on financial transactions, such as the Tobin Tax
• They proposed to reduce poverty and inequality by creating a universal basic income for every citizen.
• They proposed to strengthen the connection between schools and businesses through internships.
• They proposed to invest more in innovation and to create a knowledge economy to face the future economic challenges.

And these are just some of the recommendations worth mentioning. The final report of the Citizens’ Summit can be downloaded on www. G1000.org.

To finish, I would like to mention that the G1000 process has not only had a large impact on the Belgian public debate, but it has also had a large international echo. In Rotterdam, the Duizend op Zuid used our design to gather citizens on urban renewal. In Greece, Spain and Portugal, Citizens’ Forums are being organized to reflect on the impact of the financial crisis. And in many Belgian cities, the G1000 stands as a model for local participation initiatives.

In conclusion, it is no exaggeration to say that citizen democracy is alive and kicking, and the European Year of Citizens could not come at a better moment. I therefore join my colleagues in asking a large effort from the European institutions to thoroughly listen to citizens and to innovate the EU from the bottom-up.

Thank you very much.