The European Movement’s presence was considerable in this conference and over 50 delegates from the Speak up Europe project contributed to the debate. Its purpose was to summarise the results of Plan D projects and synthesize the results in a statement from the participants.  They structured these concerns into three themes:

1. The human aspects of globalisation
2. Enlargement, political integration and EU citizenship
3. The EU’s role on the world stage.
The debates were lively, and citizens were widely represented. Remarkably, one of the key themes addressed was that of the need for more education on Europe, as well as a stronger engagement in Social and Environmental affairs. There was also a clear consensus amongst participants that more initiatives of this kind should be provided to involve citizens in the debate on Europe’s future. Their conclusions from these debates have been consolidated into a single set of recommendations (see annex).
In short they call upon:
– The European political parties to address those recommendations in their programmes and to discuss them with citizens in view of the elections to European Parliament in 2009.
– The EU Heads of state and Government, both in their capacity as European but also national leaders, to heed those recommendations and thereby encourage the development of active European citizenship, without which there cannot be a truly political Union.
– The dialogue with citizens on European issues to be continued and deepened in the future.

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