CoFoE: Klus: People Want More Influence over EU Decisions

Bratislava, 13 June (TASR) – EU citizens want to be better informed about the EU; they want to know what the Union and its institutions are doing for their lives and to have a greater say in their decisions, while young people want to be more active on the European stage, Foreign Affairs Ministry State Secretary Martin Klus has told TASR when evaluating the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE).

Klus assessed the conference positively, describing it as an ambitious and unique project. “Thanks to it, we’ve received dozens of concrete recommendations and hundreds of proposals that give us an indication of the kind of Europe our citizens want to have,” he said.

According to him, the project also revealed several shortcomings. “For example, in the communication of EU institutions or the EU towards citizens in general, which has long resulted in the fact that the EU is distant from citizens. After all, this is also evidenced by declining support for Slovakia’s membership of the EU,” explained Klus, according to whom both national and European strategic communications are failing.”That’s why I’m optimistic that projects like the CoFoE can reverse this trend,” he stated.

Referring to the desire of young people to be more active on the European scene, he said that this is something that the EU and the public sphere should work on quickly. “For me as a political scientist, the various proposals to increase the efficiency of political processes in the EU are also interesting, but it will be difficult to find a political compromise on them. Of course, we’ll continue to follow this closely and to develop our national position on them,” the secretary noted.