CIVIL SOCIETY: 44 PRACTICES
Vouliwatch is a non for profit parliamentary monitoring organisation that engages Greek citizens with legislative politics and grants them with the opportunity to communicate, evaluate and hold elected representatives in the Greek and the European Parliament accountable.
Read more: www.vouliwatch.gr
Informing Greek citizens on the transatlantic trade partnerships TTIP and CETA whose negotiating processes are characterised by secrecy and lack of transparency.
Greek citizens, institutional partners of the Greek Parliament, MPs and MEPs, the political leadership of Greece, researchers, political and legal scientists, NGOs and citizen initiatives.
January 2016- ongoing.
In its effort to promote transparency and accountability Vouliwatch carried forward the following actions:
13th January 2016: For the first time in Greece Vouliwatch successfully organized an open discussion titled: “What do we know about the TTIP?’. The panel of speakers was constituted by representatives of different relevant interest groups so as to ensure a balanced debate and approach to the issue. In particular: G. Stathakis (Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism), G. Dimaras (MP of SYRIZA), H. Theocharis (MP of to Potami), G. Dellis (Substitute Professor of Public Law at the University of Athens), H. Spirtounias (AMCHAM), Ι. Kareta (Project Manager & Volunteers Coordinator, Fair Trade Hellas), and M. Masourakis (Chief Economist Hellenic Federation of Enterprises).
Video recording of the open discussion and promotion of the video online.
Online campaign through its website aiming at informing citizens on the issue at hand. Examples here and here.
Newsletters sent to over 5.000 recipients.
May 2016: Joint campaign with Greenpeace with the active participation of citizens, asking for members of parliament to publicly position themselves with regards to the TTIP and CETA agreements and to take action on behalf of their constituents by demanding total transparency in the negotiations and the publication of all relevant secret documents. Through Vouliwatch’s platform we disseminated and published the demands - letters of Greenpeace on the profiles of MPs and MEPs as well as on the one of the Minister of Economy G. Stathakis. Vouliwatch then exerted pressure on the recipients so that they provided their answers/statements publicly.
Presentation of the campaign on TV (show on ERT1).
Meeting with the President of the Greek Parliament to discuss the topic.
Information campaign through the social media of Vouliwatch and Greenpeace with a reach of over 420.000 recipients.
The campaign was implemented successfully and it had an impact both at a societal/audience level as well as at an institutional one:
More than 1.000.000 citizens were informed on this crucial issue via:
The TV presence of the main campaigners
The open discussion that drew more than 150 participants and which was broadcasted online via the news website The Press Project (which attracts more than 100.000 visitors per day).
The promotion of the campaign’s activities and news from the websites of Vouliwatch and Greenpeace (more than 50.000 unique visits per day).
The dissemination of the campaign through the social media channels of both Vouliwatch and Greenpeace (more than 420.000 followers).
2. At an institutional level the success was significant:
More than 20 MPs and MEPs responded publicly to the letters sent through Vouliwatch’s platform. Prior to Vouliwatch’s engagement only 5 of them had provided a response to Greenpeace.
The Minister of Economy G. Stathakis responded through his profile on Vouliwatch.
The campaign facilitated the arrangement of a meeting between Greenpeace Greece and the President of the Greek Parliament. This was broadcasted by most major Greek TV channels and dailys (ERT TV, SKAI, Huffington Post etc).
The campaign played a significant role in pushing for the creation of a special parliamentary committee on TTIP.
Greece and abroad (through the participation of the Greek American Chamber of Commerce in the open discussion, the interest of the British Embassy in Greece on the outcome of the discussion as well as the information sent to the partners of Vouliwatch and Greenpeace abroad).
With the Greenpeace Greece.
Stefanos Loukopoulos (Co-founder - Managing Director), Panagiotis Vlachos (Co-founder - Head of Strategy), Maria Nathanel (Communications officer), Konstantinos Mentzelos (Content Administrator), Gerasimos Livitsanos (Parliamentary correspondent) and from Greenpeace Greece (Natalia Tsigaridou - Campaign Manager).
The open discussion organised by Vouliwatch brought in the foreground for the first time in Greece the TTIP issue to a wider audience. It was also the first time that a public discussion on the TTIP took place where all sides of the arguments were presented. It is also noteworthy that the main speakers invited were all high profile politicians (such as the Minister of Economy), professionals, academics and CSO representatives. The collaboration with Greenpeace on this campaign was a significant factor for the success of the action as the reach of the campaign grew significantly due to the latter’s visibility and outreach. Moreover this partnership established Vouliwatch as an important player in the field of campaigning for transparency and accountbility.
No Connection with Global Goals found
