European Economic and Social Committee: EU Must Follow Up CoFoE Results

Brussels, June 18 (TASR-correspondent) – After a year of civic and political debate on the future of the EU, it’s now essential to provide Europeans with specific measures called for by the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Christa Schweng and European Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Suica concurred on Thursday.

Schweng and Suica, who co-chaired the CoFoE Executive Board, met at the EESC’s June plenary in Brussels.

Both politicians agreed that, after a year of discussions on the future of the EU at various levels – European, national and regional – it’s now necessary to provide the people of Europe with specific measures resulting from the CoFoE recommendations.

According to their joint statement, the joint efforts of civic society organisations over the last year have paid off and the Conference on the Future of Europe has succeeded in delivering meaningful results on issues of concern to Europeans.

“A total of 49 proposals have been adopted on the basis of citizens’ recommendations and with input from all stakeholders. They include many forward-looking objectives, such as explicitly empowering the EESC as a facilitator and guarantor of activities of participatory democracy,” Schweng said in a statement for the media, adding that the challenge arising from the CoFoE results is twofold.

Firstly, the expected challenges need to be met and the best possible way to promote a structured dialogue with civic society organisations needs to be found. Secondly, it’ll be necessary to follow up the conference and ensure that this “exercise” with citizens is not reversed and instead of satisfying them it doesn’t bring displeasure towards the EU and its institutions.