A Review of the People's Assembly
Written by Istillian
Edited by Lime
On June 28, 2022, Izzy published a Senate Campaign titled Izzy for Senate, in which they wrote a subsection on their motivation to be a Senator, declaring that “I would like to propose again today the People's Assembly, a successor body to the Citizens' Assembly. As a reminder of my proposal, it is essentially the lay legislatures of the past but with the twist of having real teeth in the form of standing oversight committees.” This suggestion was the first to spurn a desire for a revival of the past Citizens Assembly or another legislative training ground for Europeia, since the closure of the city-state of Arnhelm in 2020. On October 22, 2022, Senator Izzy proposed the People’s Assembly Act, with the most controversial question being on whether or not members of the People’s Assembly could conduct oversight on ministers during their terms. Furthermore, to be able to remove ministers outright or even suggest their removal from the Senate.
The initial draft received praise from senators, though with some criticism from Senator PhDre noting that “there are certain oversight powers that I do not feel are appropriate for the CA to cover, including oversight of Europeia's intelligence affairs - I don't see a CA handling oversight in this area any more successfully than the Senate.” Many comments in support of the People’s Assembly highlighted that, despite low activity, having a more structured way for non-Senators to propose legislation for consideration was preferable to proposing a discussion thread on legislation in the Grand Hall. On October 21, 2022, Sopo mentioned, “The biggest deficit to no longer having a citizen legislature is that we have no elected position for someone to prove themselves in. Having a place for everyone to write legislation is also nice, even if it is used infrequently. We've seen some such proposals move to the GH, but it isn't obvious that it is a suitable place for such things.”
With ongoing discussion regarding executive oversight, Senators were firm with ensuring that oversight itself was not taken away from the Senate, with Senator Lloenflys stating “I do not support removing any powers from the Senate just to try to make the PA [People’s Assembly] interesting. The scope creep on what the PA was going to be revived as and what continues to be discussed keeps building and frankly it makes me opposed to the whole whereas before I was at least open to entertaining it.” A revised version of the People’s Assembly Omnibus Act was presented to the Senate by Senate Speaker Grav on January 12, 2023, with only one Senator, Lloenflys, voting against the Act, saying, “I continue to believe that the functions of this body are already available to citizens through alternate means, and that formally creating a body like this doesn't really gain anything for us.”
Senate Speaker Grav passed the People’s Assembly Omnibus Act to the President for signing on January 15, 2023. In a somewhat surprising move, then-President Icarus responded by sending the bill to referendum, citing that “There are both strong arguments for as well as against it and I view it as my duty as the elected voice of the people that both sides get the chance to express their feelings. I cannot, in good conscience, come to a fair decision on this topic on my own without neglecting either side, therefore per GI2 of the Constitution, I am hereby reserving the bill for the signification of the People's Assent via referendum.” Icarus faced significant criticism on this move, with Deepest House in an opinion piece written for the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation expressing frustration on Icarus's decision to not sign the bill. However, not everyone disagreed with Icarus's decision to send the bill to a referendum, with SkyGreen arguing a referendum could help show how many citizens were truly interested in the People's Assembly. The Referendum vote for the People’s Assembly Omnibus Act was announced by then Vice Chanchellor Istillian on January 24, 2023, and gained enough citizen support to pass, with 31 citizens voting for the bill, and 17 voting against - it received the peoples assent and became law on January 25, 2023.
Since then, the People’s Assembly has seen mixed levels of activity. Senate Speaker Grav announced the first Official Chair Election to be on March 10, 2023, and despite former Senator Izzy spearheading the discussion for the creation of the People’s Assembly, Prov won the first election for Chair. Prior to this, the position had been held by Acting Chair Seren who won an informal vote to briefly serve as Acting Chair before the first official Chair election. However, Seren resigned as Acting Chair just before their term ended, meaning Turbiatop briefly took on the role of Acting Chair due to being Deputy Chair. Assembly Chair Prov lost their re-election bid to Phoenix in the May 20, 2023 election, and a rematch on July 31, 2023 saw Phoenix again defeat Prov resulting in Phoenix being the first and thus far only Assembly Chair to have won re-election.
At the end of Phoenix's second term as Assembly Chair, the main advocate behind the People's Assembly, Izzy, stood for Chair for a second time and this time won election as Chair defeating McEntire for the role. However, their term as Chair was not entirely smooth as the People’s Assembly faced some criticism on its lack of activity, which Izzy addressed in a farewell address on December 4, 2023, “I know there is also more I could've done during the term and I apologize for not being able to put in more effort this past month.” Despite the downturn in activity, Izzy said “I still truly believe in this institution and how it can benefit Europeia.”
On December 16, 2023, August De Brus was elected as People’s Assembly Chair, indicating in their platform that they would “react in a timely manner to any bills or resolutions, follow the rules of the People’s Assembly and try and keep the People’s Assembly running, hopefully even increasing activity through the use of resolutions.”
Despite this promise, the People’s Assembly sunk into relative inactivity for the past few months. That is until the latest Chair election on March 10, in which current Chair of the People’s Assembly Igualla stood and won the election, saying in their campaign that, “I believe the PA serves an important role in our Region to ensure that those of us not serving in the Senate can propose and develop legislation, and believe it can be a successful body.” In the weeks since, Igualla has thoroughly revived the activity and administration of the People’s Assembly. The EBC reached out to Igualla to ask what inspired their motivation to revive this institution, and on its sustainability long term.
"I had two motivations for running for the Chair. Firstly, the PA was essentially dead and as I've said a few times, the PA is an important body that allows non-senators to have an introduction to legislation and have their say on important issues. The second reason is a more personal one, which was to take an opportunity to be in a leadership role in the region and gain more experience.
In terms of the PA's revival, I certainly hope [it is sustainable]! I hope my PA Guide will help new members of the region gain the confidence to get involved and break down some of the barriers to getting involved in the region's legislative side. We've also gotten a lot of great bills making their way through the PA from a few people that have helped greatly.
At the end of the day, it'll depend on future Chairs to continue the momentum we've built so far, and to continue developing buy in from the rest of the region."
While the People’s Assembly has seen a remarkable turnaround, with the ongoing Constitutional Convention, and even discussion in the Senate suggesting giving speaking rights to the People's Assembly Chair, further proposals on how this institution will function are likely to change how the Assembly operates once again.
