If Putin's war against Ukraine proves anything, it is that it is more urgent than ever for the EU to demonstrate its democratic resilience to counter autocratic wargames. Yet, the protection of democracy abroad also needs to start at home. For the European peace project to thrive in this dramatically changing world, our democracy needs to become vastly more ambitious for us citizens to believe ourselves to be the architects of our common future. The Conference on the Future of Europe, set to conclude on May 9th, is supposed to do just that. But it risks falling short of making the dearly needed changes for a strong European democracy which will work for everyone.
Against this background, this webinar addressed the following questions:
- Is the EU really listening to its citizens' ideas and proposals?
- Will EU leaders respond to the European citizens’ bold demands to build a Europe that delivers on citizen empowerment?
- And what do we think of the proposal for a Citizens' Charter as a group of MEPs has recently proposed?
The Conference on the Future of Europe has only been the beginning.
Speakers:
Suzanna Carp | Democracy activist & ECIT Foundation Board Member
Daniel Freund | Member of the European Parliament for Greens/EFA and representative in the Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe
Sandro Gozi | Member of the European Parliament for Renew and former Italian State Secretary for European Affairs
Sarah Händel | Board Member of Mehr Demokratie e.V.
Stephanie Hartung | Pulse of Europe Vice-Chair and National Citizens’ Representative Germany at the Conference on the Future of Europe
Wepke Kingma | Special Envoy for the Conference on the Future of Europe at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands
Anna Lührmann | German Minister of State for Europe and Climate
Watch the event recording.
*This event builds on discussions from our previous event Unmuted: MEPs on the Conference on the Future of Europe.