Brussels – Citizens of the European Union
will have a say on how the bloc should change to meet their
needs under a proposal of the executive European Commission as
it seeks to digest the lessons of Brexit.
Encouraged by a high turnout in last May's European
Parliament elections, the commission proposes that EU
institutions and officials engage in discussions with the bloc's
roughly half-a-billion citizens over the next two years on what
kind of EU they want.
The project, called the Conference on the Future of Europe,
aims to counter the kind of alienation and distrust of Brussels
that helped fuel Britain's decision in a 2016 referendum to
leave the EU after more than four decades of membership.
"The overarching aim of the Conference on the Future of
Europe is to encourage European citizens and make it easier for
them to get involved in democracy beyond the European
elections," the Commission said.
The final concept, structure, scope and timing of the
project are still to be agreed between the European Parliament,
national governments and the Commission, but the initial idea is
to gather citizens' feedback and views through conferences,
panels and debates as well as a multilingual website.
The EU executive offered to pull together the feedback in a
quarterly report.
The commission, governments and the parliament would pledge
to abide by the results in policy-making and even change EU
treaties if such was the conclusion of the process.
"The commission is convinced that a stronger partnership
between European policy-makers and Europe's citizens will serve
to amplify their voices and guide European policy-making in the
future," the commission said.