Pétition adressée à : European Parliament

Introduction
This is a petition for the European Union (EU) to provide funds for the construction of primitive campsites in the EU member countries.
Europe has vast areas of diverse and beautiful nature, but it is often very difficult to find places to camp legally in nature. Commercial campsites often do not exist in such places, and when they do exist, they can be quite expensive. As a result, there has been an explosion in recent years, in the number of campers that use picnic-areas and parking-spaces in nature, which can be an unpleasant experience for both the campers and the local people.
If the EU provides funds for the construction of primitive campsites, then it would take the financial risk away from the EU member countries, which will make it a lot easier for them to try it, as well as giving them standard guidelines to follow in the construction of such primitive campsites.
Original Idea
This idea comes from New Zealand which has hundreds of such primitive campsites in nature, that are created and run by their government. A list of their primitive campsites with photos can be seen here.
Benefits
Primitive campsites have many benefits for both campers and the local communities:

• They get campers away from public parking-spaces near picnic-areas, beaches, forests, hiking-trails, etc. where local people are annoyed by the presence of campers.
• The campsites are very cheap and easy to construct and maintain because very little infrastructure is needed. It is basically just a big parking space in nature.
• They should be able to generate enough revenue from campers to finance both their construction and maintenance.
• They provide a great increase in tourism to rural areas which may not get many tourists otherwise.
• They may help create a greater understanding and cohesion between Europeans of different nations.

Requirements
These are some of the minimum requirements that EU should make when giving money to support the construction of primitive campsites:

• The primitive campsite must be located in nature - it cannot simply be a parking space on the outskirts of a small town.
• The campsite must be away from roads because of the noise.
• The access road can just be gravel if it is in decent condition. The campsite itself can either be gravel or grass. It is basically just a big parking-space in nature.
• The primitive campsites should have trash containers nearby. If not on the campsite itself, then within a reasonable distance e.g. at the nearest asphalt-road so the garbage truck can come and pick it up.
• There should be a composting toilet on the campsite. Sweden is probably the best country at building these so there is very little smell and discomfort. Maybe they can help build them in all the EU countries.
• There should be a water-point nearby or in the nearest village, where people can fill their water-tanks and dump their chemical toilets. These water-points should be made properly and safely so the fresh-water supply is completely separated from the waste-water dump.
• The campsites should be strategically placed so they are not too close to commercial campsites, because that would risk taking too much of their business.

Payment System
Payment can be done using a simple smartphone app, which could be used by all the primitive campsites in the EU. This would also make it possible to see how full a campsite is before driving there, make reservations in high season, and to remind people not to stay too long at any one campsite.
For privacy reasons the data should probably be deleted again after a certain amount of time (e.g. 3 months), so people don't feel that their movements are being tracked by the EU.
Organization
A small non-profit organization can be setup to administrate and coordinate the allocation of EU funds, as well as provide expertise to the EU member countries that want to build such primitive campsites. The main organization should also hire a company to develop and run the internet-based payment system.
Ideally this organization would consist of people who are camping and outdoor enthusiasts, so they are excited about building such a network of primitive campsites throughout Europe, that they themselves will be using for many years to come.
The construction of the primitive campsites should probably be done in stages, e.g. by only building 3-5 campsites per country in the first year, and learning from the mistakes to improve the campsites built in the following year.
An internet forum should be setup where the main organization and the country organizations can share their experiences, but also where the individual campers can provide feedback on what they like and don't like about the primitive campsites, so they can be improved in the future.