Foreign Policies

MEP Pollak: CoFoE Should Also Think about Marginalised Groups in EU

Bratislava, December 16 (TASR-correspondent) – The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) should think about the Roma and other groups of EU citizens whose representation in European institutions is very low, Slovak MEP Peter Pollak has stated for TASR.

“The Conference on the Future of Europe is a process in which all citizens should have a voice. I’m also referring to citizens whose voices are often not heard, citizens who aren’t involved or engaged in policy-making on a larger scale,” said the MEP, calling on the parties involved at all levels to take these people’s views into account.

Pollak praised the idea of the CoFoE and its citizens’ panels, in which “the public has the opportunity to express its views, share its opinions, perspectives on issues and challenges that affect it deeply.” However, he also pointed out that it’s important that politicians and institutions should take these outputs into account later.

The CoFoE brings together randomly selected citizens of EU-member states who have been divided into four citizens’ panels. Each panel will meet a total of three times between September 2021 and January 2022.

What the MEP likes in particular about the conference is that it is built on a bottom-up approach. At the same time, he believes that recommendations and feedback from these citizens will result in real changes. “That is, after all, the essence of this process … Otherwise, the conference would make no sense and would be a big disappointment for the public,” he warned.

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