Pat Cox, the President of the European Movement International (EMI), speaking also on behalf of Notre Europe, Deutsche Gesellschaft and European House Hungary, resumed at today’s press conference the results of several Plan D projects:

“Citizens are are not especially interested in the car engine but rather are more focused on its ability to travel to the desired policy destinations. In short, they are results and not process oriented.”
“We call upon the EU Heads of State and Government to avoid a low-level compromise that would significantly dilute the existing Constitutional text. We believe that it is essential to design the new European Union fit for our times and capable of fulfilling the expectations of its citizens,” Cox appealed to the EU leaders meeting next week.

“The political leaders need to regain citizens’ trust and confidence in the European project and show they care about citizens’ involvement in the decision-making machine. In terms of energy to act on what the Summit must do is to refuel and not dilute the Union’s prospects,” concluded Cox.

Mrs Margot Wallström, the Vice-President of the European Commission, followed with her wish that “the Plan D extends well beyond the 2007” and that “we continue with the setting up an infrastructure for such debates in the future.”

Mr Jo Leinen, the Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the EP, strongly emphasized the need to respond to the wish of the citizens “for more Europe, in the area of environment, energy and much more.”

“The democratic improvements of the Constitution should not be watered down,” Leinen said.

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You can read the FULL STATEMENT of Pat Cox here (PDF).

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Note to Editors:

The press conference was organised by four organisation that are running projects in the framework of the Plan D. The European Movement International is the main coordinator of the project “Speak up Europe”. Notre Europe runs the project “Tomorrow’s Europe: Pan-European Deliberative Polling for Plan D”. The Deutsche Gesellschaft runs the project “Our message to Europe”. Európa Ház Egyesület runs the project “Our Europe – Our Debate – Our Contribution”.The four organisations have received financial support from the DG Communication, European Commission in the framework of the Plan D – Democracy, Dialogue and Debate