THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REPORT. Europe in a period of transition

HOW CAN PARTICIPATION IN THE CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF EUROPE BE IMPROVED FOR ORGANISED CIVIL SOCIETY AND CITIZENS? 37 were not allowed to speak. In other words, a total of 330 took part and 120 spoke in successive monologues. The third reason is that, in our opinion, there has been excessive emphasis on giving participation to cit- izens who are indifferent to the process consequently making the Multilingual Platform the central element. However, from our point of view, all European citizens should be allowed to take part alongside anyone provid- ing the backbone of organised civil society. We cannot forget that the Hague Congress involved committed cit- izens, not indifferent people. These are the reasons why I defended, on the one hand, the relevance of civil society and the role of the European Movement in the Conference on the Future of Europe Plenary when I said, “I would like to remind you of the role that the European Movement played in the Hague Conference in 1948, right where it all began, with Basques, Catalans, Spaniards standing together..., where European civil society was set in motion to boost European construction.” Furthermore, I insisted that we should play a relevant role in the Conference on the Future of Europe “because we are looking at the pro- cess in further depth at this time and I want to insist on the importance of civil society, on the relevance of the fact that we should have a greater voice to take part in its reform just as we were able to set the process in motion.” I finished my speech by emphasising the need to bal- ance participation from institutions to make it successful, and specifically I said, “I am very happy to be here. How- ever, for it to be successful, we need equal participation between citizens, civil society and representatives from the institutions. I believe that this situation should be improved. It does not seem right that the Commissions are only presided over by representatives from the insti- tutions, except for one, it does not seem right that each member speaks for a different length of time, it does not seem right that we are not on the Board, on the Executive Board.” I would like to conclude by stating that “we have to take strides to have fairer participation on an equal footing.” Proposals for improvement of the Conference on the Future of Europe The Conference on the Future of Europe has begun, but we must act, once again, to improve how it functions to achieve its oft-repeated aims. To do so, we understand that its workings can be improved in some of the aspects explained below. We might suggest possibilities as spe- cific examples, although we still do not have sufficient pieces of the puzzle to give a complete view of possible improvements. First, in the light of all that has been stated, the role of civil society should be reinforced. To do that, I believe that it will have to be based on strengthening the role of the 8 civil society representatives and the 27 representatives of the national events.To be precise, each of its States should achieve real participation from civil society and make pro- posals in each of the topics so that they are raised in the Conference plenary, providing a voice for civil society. Second, the procedure rules refer to national, federal and regional Conferences, depending on each country’s organisational model. They should also make proposals and debate in the plenaries. The set of representatives from these entities should be defended in practical terms Third, young people should have their own entity and, therefore, be able to make proposals as a group in every plenary, not just the citizen panels. In addition, they should also be able to formulate their proposals for the final conclusions as a group. Young people cannot just be represented by citizen panels chosen at random. Fourth, the platform can be improved and might be a useful mechanism but, in any case, participation should be facilitated from associations and civil society as enti- ties and not by means of their individuals.The same must happen in the case of young people. Fifth, facilitators and experts who are going to take part in the panels can play a very important role when channelling the debate for the citizen panels, given that these citizens have little experience. Sixth, it would be good to have meetings, at least at a national level, between civil society, social partners,