French Public Submits Final Report on CoFoE to Government
Brussels, December 7 (TASR-correspondent) – The French Government already has at its disposal a national final report to contribute to the ongoing Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), according to a press release from the Permanent Representation of France to the EU in Brussels.
The report is a synthesis of the results of 18 regional conferences and over 50,000 online proposals from ordinary people and organisations. Over the course of September and October, 18 regional conferences were held across France, bringing together nearly 800 randomly selected people. The participants were asked the following question: “What changes do you, as French citizens, want for Europe?”.
At the end of this process, 100 citizens delegated from the original 800 met on October 15-17 at the Social, Economic and Environmental Council (CESE), which brings together representatives of employers, employees and interest organisations, to discuss the changes demanded by the French public and to draw up a national summary of their proposals.
On November 29, a citizens’ monitoring committee presented the final report to French Minister for European Affairs Clement Beaune and Minister Delegate for Relations with Parliament and Citizen Participation Marc Fesneau. This event was watched via video link by more than 1,000 French citizens who were involved in preparing the document. In addition, members of the committee discussed the next steps to be taken in the CoFoE process with the two ministers.
The final report represents the French public’s contribution to the CoFoE. This citizens’ input will be reflected in the CoFoE conclusions, which are expected to be announced in the spring of 2022, as well as in the priorities of the forthcoming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, set to start on January 1 and last until June 30, 2022.