Improvement of the coordination of National Collectives and Electoral Wings with the Coordinating Collective - Vote by DiEM25 members

In the past four years, we have often experienced the following issues in DiEM25’s elected collectives:

1. Members who disappear shortly after having been voted because they did not realise how much work it was, or who discover that they disagree with parts of our Organising Principles, voted policies and political stances.

2. National DiEM25 outlets are being used in order to promote a stance that is at odds with DiEM25’s international stance, or to campaign for a political party/candidate that DiEM25 has not decided to endorse.

3. Published materials are often deviate from the DiEM25 positions, or are not coordinated with the priorities and strategies of the movement

4. During electoral periods, work in that country comes to a standstill.

In order to address the issue of disappearing elected members, while not wanting to alter the open-source and plural nature of our collectives, DiEM25 will now conduct preliminary interviews with candidates to these collectives before activating their candidacies, in order to ensure that candidates are indeed well-informed and understand both the movement’s ideals, procedures, policies and political positionings, as well as the requirements in terms of time and availability.

A new technical feature will allow for members to issue objections to certain members’ candidacies, based on an explanation that they will be asked to provide. The interview committee will then have to investigate the objection and submit a proposal (for or against the objection) to the Validating Council.

The interviews, for the purposes of transparency, will be carried out on a rotating basis, always by four people: an elected and an appointed member of the CC, a randomly-selected member of the Validating Council and a member of an NC from a country other than the one in which the election is taking place. If the majority of the group feel that certain long-term DiEMers do not need to be interviewed, they can vote (3/4 majority) to not interview them.

In order to address all the other points , we want to introduce more NC-level ex officios, i.e. people who are selected or hired because of professional experience in graphic design, PR, finances and similar, so that the elected members of the NCs can focus on movement-building, analysis and representing DiEM25 to the outside world. This also means that the press officer, social media person and so on won’t disappear when there is an NC election, and won’t need time to get started after an election, but certain functions are assured at all times. Additionally, all should be coordinated by the international-level equivalent, so as to ensure coherence and common action across Europe.

(For more information on the reasoning and the implementation of this new procedure, please read the CC Vision Implementation plan)

The following is the Organising Principles section on National Collectives with the recommended changes in italics:

Once the movement has matured in a country, the CC may propose that a National Collective be constituted in order to take over some of the coordinating tasks. The CC’s proposal must then be validated by the VC.

NCs are ideally formed by 8 to 10 members, but exemptions can be made based on the size of the country and the extent of DiEM25’s operations there. If such an exemption is seen as necessary, local members can propose it to the CC which will assess and forward it to the VC. The CC can also take the initiative to propose such an exemption to the VC.

Additionally, NCs may appoint people to help them with specific tasks. These people may participate in NC meetings as ex officio, but shall not have a voice in decisions (like the content of a public statement, etc.). In their responsibilities and duties towards DiEM25, they will work closely with their Coordinating Collective counterparts and other National Collectives (or Provisional National Collectives) in order to ensure that their actions are in keeping with DiEM25’s pan-European identity. This means that the Coordinating Collective also has the right to demand the replacement by the National Collective of NC ex officios who are breaking the guidelines and/or rules of the movement, or who are not responsive or collaborative. The replacement of an NC ex officio can be appealed by the ex officio in question or the NC within 7 days of their removal from their post, which takes the case to the VC.

Initially, a Provisional National Collective will be organised by the CC in consultation with all relevant DSCs, and the initial list of members will be validated by the VC, but, within 12 months of the selection of this Provisional National Collective, elections must be held for the members. Members elected thereafter shall serve a two-year term.

NC elections will be conducted using DiEM25’s voting platform and respecting the movement’s transnational character. This means that ALL DIEM25 members will have the right to participate as voters or candidates in the election of any NC. Naturally, members are encouraged to vote only in NC elections if they are familiar with the candidates and the specific country’s political environment.

NC members will not be elected based on separate mandates, but as equal members. NC members will then be expected to self-organise amongst themselves and split tasks according to their areas of interest and expertise. Professional tasks such as communications (press, social media etc.) are best left to appointed members of the NC who have relevant experience and skills (ex officio) who will also work under the coordination of the European-level (CC) counterparts.

NCs will be granted access to data about members in their country in as much as possible given applicable national and European data privacy laws, and be enabled to contact them directly.

NCs can sign open letters and participate in national campaigns as long as they inform the CC first. If the CC does not respond within three days to requests for co-signing open letters (or ten days to proposals for campaigns) that an NC wishes to participate in, then the NC is free to go ahead without any repercussions. The NC needs to use the specific online form for submitting their request, and needs to attempt to contact the CC twice within that period, with at least one day between requests.

NCs cannot decide to support or to work with other political actors in its country but can explore possible alliances with political actors. However, any such alliance must be proposed to the CC which will, then, either recommend it to the VC for validation or put the matter to an all-member vote.

All policy papers coordinated by the NC must be, before being adopted, submitted to the CC. All such policies that the CC approves will require validation by the VC. And whenever the CC objects to any aspect of a policy recommendation by an NC, the CC must put the matter to an all-member vote.

Do you agree with the proposed changes in italics?