ANO pro Evropu

A civic association with the following objectives

• To work to try and make Europe as much of a "shared space" as possible in national debate, rather than another area left to partisan fighting.
• To build awareness of the benefits of taking a positive approach to full engagement in the Union, including the necessity to avoid an elite-focus.
• To promote the idea that membership is relevant to all groups and communities – that Europe is "us" not "them".

Within these broader objectives we try to focus our projects on more specific objectives. ANO’s current projects have as their objectives

• Trying to improve public understanding of the facts of Czech involvement in the EU.
• Promoting a constructive engagement with the major issues at stake in this debate, in particular, their social and  economic importance and their importance for our democratic culture.

How ANO does its work

ANO is headed by a small civic group and operates in cooperation with a wider group of supporters and organisations. It works under the auspices of Vaclav Havel. Its Chairperson is Monika MacDonagh-Pajerova and Deputy-Chairperson is Svatopluk Karásek.

ANO organises events in cooperation with other groups in accordance with the following principles.

• Provide non-partisan forums which take a practical and accessible approach to issues.
• Create relevant publications to inform the public and stimulate a more constructive debate.
• Create occasions for the general public to receive information and participate in constructive debate.
• Involve local government, NGOs and business throughout the Republic in discussion of major membership-related issues.
• Help develop a network of individuals and organisations willing to work together on promoting a positive engagement with membership.

ANO pro Evropu seeks to be broadly-based, is not politically aligned and does not participate in elections. Representatives of all of the main democratic parties participate in our actions as do independents.

The European Union Referendum

ANO pro Evropu was founded in 2002. Its immediate objective was to design and implement a project to promote a high turnout and high Yes vote in the EU accession referendum through an active campaign throughout the Czech Republic. We sought to provide a mechanism for  a full range of persons to use a "shared non-party space".

We assembled over 118 prominent supporters, with former President Havel as the principal supporter. Operationally, the campaign involved

• 85.000 posters put up throughout the country.
• A series of national press conferences across eight weeks dealing with the main reasons for voting Yes; including Health, Education, the Environment, Democracy, Culture and the Economy.
• Over 40 local events, overwhelmingly in the regions, with a mixture of prominent speakers and subject experts.
• A major public concert in Prague a few days before polling.
• The production and placing of a wide range of articles dealing with the key reasons for voting Yes.
• The bringing together of pro-Europe groups to coordinate their activities.

This was the first free referendum in our history, and in spite of powerful opponents, the people voted in favour of membership of the European Union by an overwhelming 77%. ANO’s campaign was by far the most prominent non-party effort in the referendum.