Conference on the Future of Europe - How and why Civil Society Organisations should participate
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Conference on the Future of
Europe
How and why Civil Society Organisations
should participate
22 September 2021
How and why Civil Society Organisations should
participate
Introduction
The Conference on the Future of Europe is an EU initiative that aims to give EU citizens,
experts and policymakers the possibility to express their opinion on the future of Europe. The
Conference is a bottom-up experiment of inclusive reflection, inviting EU citizens of all
backgrounds and ages to debate the EU’s contemporary challenges and future. In particular,
citizens and civil society organisations are invited to organise their own events and submit
their written contributions within the framework of this Conference via a Multilingual digital
platform which is described below.
“People need to be at the very centre of all our policies. My wish is therefore that all
Europeans will actively contribute to the Conference on the Future of Europe and play a
leading role in setting the European Union’s priorities. It is only together that we can build
our Union of tomorrow.”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
22 January 2020
The final outcomes of this year-long conference will provide essential incentives for
adaptation, innovation and renewal and will be presented in a report to the presidents of the
European Parliament (David Sassoli), Council of the European Union (The future President of
the French Republic), and European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen). European leaders
will then reflect on what is the most appropriate way to reform the European Union taking
into account the proposals and ideas of its citizens. The Conference was officially launched on
the 9th of May, followed by an inaugural Conference Plenary on 19 June in Strasbourg and will
conclude in May 2022.
Structure
Overall, the Conference will consist of four main components:
Multilingual digital platform– this provides a space for European citizens to share
ideas for EU developments in their own language, and to host and attend events.
These inputs will be collected, analysed, monitored and published throughout theConference. A first report was published and shared with the Citizens Panel on 17
September.
Decentralised events – online, in-person and hybrid events held by individuals and
organisations as well as national, regional and local authorities across the EU. Any
person or organisation can organise their own decentralised event in the scope of the
Conference, by registering them on the Digital Platform.
European Citizens' Panels – there are four European Citizens' Panels, each of them
comprising 200 different citizens each time. During the selection, made by an external
organisation independent of the European Commission, it must be ensured that at
least one female and one male citizen per Member State is included. Therefore,
citizens will be selected randomly but with respect to geographic origin, gender, age,
socioeconomic background and level of education. To guarantee diversity especially
with respect to age, young people between 16 and 25 will make up one-third of each
panel. In the first panel some young people below the age of 18 will participate.1
o The Panels will discuss the input gathered through the Digital Platform and
formulate a set of recommendations for the EU, present the outcome of their
discussions and debate them with other participants.
o Each of the four panels addresses different topic areas: (1) Values, rights, rule
of law, democracy, security; (2) Climate change, environment/health; (3)
Stronger economy, social justice, jobs/education, youth, culture, sport/digital
transformation; and (4) EU in the world/migration.
o The European Citizens' Panels are held as physical events, online or hybrid
sessions, starting on 17-19 September 2021 in Strasbourg. In terms of location,
the four Citizen’s Panels are split between Dublin, Florence, Maastricht and
Natolin. Its plenary sessions are web-streamed, though not its smaller
discussion groups.
o Outcomes of the European Citizens Panels feed into the Conference Plenary.
Conference Plenary - the plenary comprises a total of 433 representatives, from
three EU Institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament), national parliaments,
the above-mentioned citizens' panels, the European Committee of the Regions
(CoR), European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), national events or panels,
social partners and civil society. The plenary will discuss issues and recommendations
coming from national and European citizens' panels as well as input from the digital
platform, grouped by themes. Debates will be open, without a predetermined
outcome and without limiting topics to pre-defined policy areas. Results of the
Plenaries will be shared with the Conference Executive Board.
1
At present, it is unknown how many children between the ages of 16 and 18 participate. However, children
participating will be accompanied by a parent/guardian.o The Civil Society Convention, led by Civil Society Europe, has been allocated 5
seats (out of 8 for civil society) in the Plenary of the institutional Conference
on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). Eurochild is a member of the Civil Society
Convention and sees this as a great achievement and recognition for our
collective mobilisation.
The Executive Board, which manages the work of the conference, will draw and
publish the Conclusions of the Conference Plenary and send these to the European
Parliament, Council and European Commission. The first Plenary session is scheduled
for 22-23 October 2021. The board is co-chaired by the MEP Guy Verhofstadt on behalf
of the European Parliament, a representative from the rotating Presidency of the
Council and the European Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica.2
The Joint Presidency - The Conference is placed under the authority of the three EU
institutions, represented by the President of the European Parliament, the President
of the Council and the President of the European Commission, acting as its Joint
Presidency. The Joint Presidency is supported by the abovementioned Executive
Board.
How to engage
Why your participation matters
We firmly believe that children’s rights should be at the heart of the topics discussed within
this framework and that children should have a right to participate and shape this process.
The Conference on the Future of Europe constitutes a major possibility to reform the EU in
the best interests of children.
For this reason, we encourage our members to facilitate the realisation of this right by
organising their own decentralised events or join events organised by other CSOs within your
countries. You can participate in sharing ideas, endorsing others or commenting on other
ideas when you register to the platform, which is accessible in all EU languages.
You can also upload policy papers or opinions in the dedicated sections of the online
platform. Please note that you are not requested to upload uniquely new content; you can
2
Other representatives of the Executive Board: European Parliament: Manfred Weber (EPP, DE), Iratxe García
Pérez (S&D, ES); Council of the EU: Gasper Dovzan (Slovenian Secretary of State for EU Affairs), Clément Beaune
(French Minister of State for EU Affairs); European Commission: Maroš Šefčovič (Vice-President for
Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight), Věra Jourová (Vice-President for Values and Transparency)
Observers: European Parliament: Gerolf Annemans (ID, BE), Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, DE), Zdzisław
Krasnodębski (ECR, PL), Helmut Scholz (The Left, DE); Council of the EU: Milena Hrdinková (Czech State Secretary
for EU Affairs), Hans Dahlgren (Swedish Minister for EU Affairs), Juan González-Barba Pera (Spanish Secretary of
State for the EU), Sophie Wilmès (Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister)
Other: Guido Wolf (COSAC), Gunther Krichbaum (COSAC), Luís Capoulas Santos (COSAC), Marko Pogačnik
(COSAC), Bojan Kekec (COSAC), Apostolos Tzitzikostas (Committee of the Regions), Christina Schweng (European
Economic and Social Committee), Markus Beyrer (BusinessEurope), Luca Visentini (ETUC)indeed use this platform to disseminate useful documents your organisation has been
working on over the last months. Furthermore, civil society could also get in touch with
national policymakers and MEPs who will participate in the Conference different components
(see above) to ensure children’s rights will be adequately covered throughout the whole
process.3
There is no predetermined agenda or outcome of this Conference. Therefore, to ensure
children’s rights are included, events and uploaded documents on topics affecting children
will draw attention to children’s rights, and potentially could influence future decision-
making processes on all levels.
We are convinced that your participation will be essential to make this Conference a
meaningful initiative!
Child Participation
Please note that there are no child safeguarding measures in place in the online platform,
and would therefore encourage you to support children if they would like to engage with
this process. This issue has been raised with the European Commission and we expect that
this will soon be made clear on the platform.
Therefore, we strongly advise children and young people below the age of 18 not to
directly register or access this platform
To ensure their privacy and safety, anyone below the age of 18 is encouraged to
participate and submit ideas, opinions and participate in events via a children’s
organisation or other trusted adults, where safeguarding measures are in place
We are working on an accessible and child-friendly version of this document, which
will be shared shortly. This also includes a link to the child-friendly version of the EU
Strategy on the Rights of the Child, which is guiding the EU’s work on children’s rights
for the next years.
How to participate
The Multilingual digital platform constitutes the hub of the Conference, providing a broad
range of tools to attend or organise events. After you have registered, you can either generally
browse events or ideas or navigate through the hub according to certain prescribed topic
areas.
As shown below, the platform will give you the possibility to check the meetings that have
been already organised and included in the system; share your ideas by commenting directly
on the website or uploading a policy briefing your organisation has produced in the past
month; or publicise an event you are organising in the platform. If you organise an event
3
Please consult this website for further information on participants to contact. Note that information might
not be available until close to the date of the event and check for updates regularly.which you would like to be promoted among Eurochild members or beyond, please let us
know.
Timeline
Time Event Comment
2021
MAY & JUNE
9 May Launch (Lisbon)
17 June Citizen’s event (Lisbon) Hybrid
18 – 19 June Inaugural Conference PlenarySEPTEMBER
17 – 19 September European Citizen’s Panel 1 – first session In presence and web streamed
24 – 26 September European Citizen’s Panel 2 – first session In presence and webstreamed
OCTOBER
1 – 3 October European Citizen’s Panel 3 – first session In presence and webstreamed
8 – 9 October European Youth Event
15 – 17 October European Citizen’s Panel 4 – first session In presence and webstreamed
22 – 23 October Conference Plenary
NOVEMBER
5 – 7 November European Citizen’s Panel 1 – second Virtual
session
12 – 14 November European Citizen’s Panel 2 – second Virtual
session
19 – 21 November European Citizen’s Panel 3 – second Virtual
session
26 – 27 November European Citizen’s Panel 4 – second Virtual
session
DECEMBER
4 – 5 December European Citizen’s Panel 1 – third session In presence and web streamed
10 – 12 December European Citizen’s Panel 2 – third session In presence and web streamed
17 – 18 December Conference Plenary Panel 1 and Panel 2 present their
recommendations to the Plenary
2022
JANUARY
7 – 9 January European Citizen’s Panel 3 – third session In presence and web streamed
14 – 16 January European Citizen’s Panel 4 – third session In presence and web streamed
21 – 22 January Conference Plenary Panel 3 and Panel 4 present their
recommendations to the Plenary
FEBRUARY
18 – 19 February Conference Plenary Proposals
MARCH
11 – 12 March Possible Conference Plenary
APRIL22 – 24 April (TBC) European Citizens’ Panel – Final event Virtual or hybrid/Feedback to the
participants in the panels
Graphic overview of the Conference and its Participants
Useful links
Q & A Multilingual Digital Platform
How do I organise an event? Digital Platform for the Conference on the Future Charter of the Conference on the Future of Europe Future of Europe: Engaging with citizens to build a more resilient Europe Work begins on the Conference on the Future of Europe
For more information, contact: Dr. Ally Dunhill Head of Advocacy Ally.dunhill@eurochild.org Eurochild AISBL Avenue des Arts 7/8, 1210 Brussels Tel. +32 (0)2 511 70 83 info@eurochild.org – www.eurochild.org © Eurochild 2020
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