Ciudadanos Europeos

Getting to know

Already early in the process of settlement of European citizens in Spain, it became clear that we had a number of joint problems and needs.

A number of foreigners in Spain took initiatives to solve the problems and satisfy the need for information. We received promises that the European citizens would be permitted to take part in local elections. The actual voting right came much later, after much lobbying from the Europeans themselves.

After a long campaign by the foreigners in Spain, supported by the European Parliament, we got in 1989 the new law on protection of property buyers, that represented a great step forward.

The Maastricht agreement
on the European Citizenship in 1992 became a rallying point. The national association "Ciudadanos Europeos" was started and pin-pointed the most important and general program points for the Europeans living in Spain:

Information from the Spanish authorities in our languages
Participation of the Europeans in the decisions concerning them
The use of the vote to promote a stronger integration on the local level

By a number of initiatives we made the Spanish authorities aware of the great number of foreign property owners, their problems and our proposals. In 1997 we got assurances from the governing party that they would set up an organisation to bring all information needed to the foreigners in their languages. The task was given to the Valencia government, that in 1998 constituted the foundation FIPE. This good initiative was however shortly drowned in the administrative chaos of the regional government, that did not comply with the promises given on the financing of the project.

In January 2006 the association Ciudadanos Europeos decided to leave the foundation FIPE and set up another information system. This web page is part of that work.

Local elections in 2007
The participation of the European citizens is greatest on the local level. Many Europeans have registered on the voters list in their municipalities, and many voted during the last local elections. In a number of tourist municipalities we have foreign councillors.

Local elections will take place in 2007, and the association will promote the participation of the European citizens. We have no ideological ties, and do not try to import the politics of our home countries to Spain. We are recommending the foreigners to register as voters by entering the "padron municipal"; we foment the foreigners participation in forming local citizens program. We would like to see the European citizens reflected in the local programs of all parties, and European citizens on their lists, as well as independent citizens list.

The organisation
The board of the association consists of persons from 5 different nationalities (the president is Spanish), living in varies municipalities. We have members all over Spain and collaborates with a number of local associations and groups.

Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.