On Wednesday, 30 November 2022 from 10:00 to 12:00 CET, the European Movement International held a joint event with SGI Europe entitled “More Than Words: What’s Next for the Conference on the Future of Europe?” hosted by Ms Patrizia Toia MEP in the European Parliament, room ASP3H1.

The Conference on the Future of Europe has provided European citizens with a venue to shape a dialogue with European and national institutions, organised civil society, Social Partners, and local and regional governments to craft concrete proposals for a better Europe and to put forward ground-breaking ideas for democratic participation and decision-making.  

Citizens’ recommendations emanating from the Conference are constructive, ambitious and forward looking and offer a unique opportunity to build a common trajectory for the future of the European Union. Citizens are eager to see the European Union (EU) and its Member States work together to deliver solutions to the challenges we are facing without delay.  

This joint event provided an open discussion on how a solid democratic environment can be shaped and citizen participation can be strengthened in Europe in which citizens from all walks of life can actively engage and have a saying in the decisions that affect them. 

This discussion brought together representatives from organised civil society, the EU institutions, social partners and the CoFoE’s citizens’ ambassadors that took part in the Plenary sessions of the Conference with the ambition of discussing how to deliver on the CoFoE by coming up with tangible proposals. 

First panel (10:00-10:50 CET) What is the Europe of Tomorrow that We Want?  

• Patrizia Toia MEP (S&D), European Parliament;
• Guy Verhofstadt MEP (Renew Europe), European Parliament;
• Oliver Röpke, President of the Workers’ Group, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC);
• Guillaume McLaughlin, Co-head of the CoFoE’s Common Secretariat, European Parliament;
• Nicolas Morávek, Member of the Citizens’ Panels, Plenary Member of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Moderated by Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary, SGI Europe 

Second panel (11:00-12:00 CET) The Future of Citizens’ Panels  

• Colin Scicluna,  Head of Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica, European Commission and Former Co-head of the Common Secretariat of the Conference on the Future of Europe;
• Daniel Freund MEP (Greens/EFA), European Parliament;
• Camille Dobler, Head of Research, Missions Publiques.
• Valentina Balzani, Member of the Citizens’ Panels, Plenary Member of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Moderated by Petros Fassoulas, Secretary General, European Movement International (EMI)

We encourage you to follow the event organisers @EMInternational & @SGI_Europe and join the overall discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #CoFoE.