13. Case Study: the European Commons Assembly

In November 2016, a group of 150 commoners from all over Europe gathered in Brussels to lay the foundations for a united and strong European commons movement. The European Commons Assembly was born. Building on collective work on policy proposals in the preceding weeks, the Assembly took over the European Parliament for a 3.5 hour session exploring the ECA as a platform and the commons as a powerful paradigm for policy making.

Beyond this historic event, the European Commons Assembly is an ongoing process that facilitates pluralistic debate regarding the strategy and agenda for a united political vision. Its goal is threefold:

1. support the decentralised activities of commoners and their engagement in concrete, collaborative and bottom-up actions
2. give a voice to and increase the visibility of the commons movement
3. channel the needs and demands of socially and ecologically sustainable initiatives to the political arena.

Near-term objectives for the Assembly in 2018 include expanding and strengthening the community, ongoing policy work and a number of more decentralized assemblies in various European cities.