Future of Europe Conference: Strasbourg, citizens’ panels get to work. Focus on economy, social justice, youth, culture

Citizens are at work to imagine and propose a European Union tailored to their needs: the Conference on the Future of Europe is getting to the heart of the nine topics for discussion with the meeting of the first of four European Citizens' Panels. From today until Sunday, 19 September, the first 200 citizens will meet in Strasbourg to exchange views in plenary and in working groups on the following topics: “A stronger economy, social justice, jobs / education, youth, culture, sport / digital transformation”. Over the next three weekends, the other 200 citizens for each Panels will exchange views on European democracy/values, rights, rule of law, security (24-26 September); climate change, environment/health (1-3 October); and EU in the world/migration (15-17 October). Each Panel will meet three times to formulate the recommendations that they will submit to the Conference Plenary, where over 80 citizens, representatives of European institutions, national parliaments and European organizations and NGOs sit. The basis for debate in the panels is the 65-page first "interim report" published in 24 languages on the website of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which contains the contributions published on the digital platform of the Conference from 19 April, when it was launched, to 2 August. Moderators and experts will support citizens and will operationally coordinate the panel discussions.Sarah Numico