The European Institute of Romania (EIR) announces the publication of the Progress Report – The Conference on the Future of Europe: Views from Romanian citizens. The document reflects the conclusions of the events organised by EIR, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as by EUROPE DIRECT Bucharest, as part of the series dedicated to the Conference on the Future of Europe. The events took place between April and November 2021.
Considering the extensive European deliberative exercise regarding the future of Europe, EIR invited various socio-demographic categories to take part in the debates: pupils and students, teachers, young professionals, senior citizens, representatives of central and local institutions, business people, representatives of non-governmental organisations, citizens interested in EU affairs and in EU’s future. These events offered the opportunity to invite decision-makers specialised in European affairs, who were able to provide an overview of the current context and the trends that will influence the European future.
This report represents a summary of the ideas expressed by the citizens on the following topics: digitalisation and digital transformation, climate change and environment, transportation, economic recovery, social justice and jobs, education, health, European democracy and citizen participation, disinformation, polarisation and populism, resilience, and the future of the European Union, as well as Romania’s contribution to the Conference on the Future of Europe. Additionally, the report includes a scoreboard regarding the main interests expressed by Romanian citizens in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
“By organising this series of events in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we wanted to create agorae for the Romanian citizens, through which they could voice their proposals, ideas and preoccupations for the future of the European project and make them heard. When analysing the shared impressions, we notice a high level of trust in the European Union, translated into a series of specific requests. Some of these include increasing the EU competencies in several domains, such as health, while others represent manifestations of worries regarding the economic stability or democratic resilience.” – Oana-Mihaela Mocanu, director general of the European Institute of Romania
The report was prepared by Eliza Vaș, expert within the European Studies Unit. The translation into English language was done by Mihai Constandache and Raluca Brad, experts in the Translation Coordination Unit. Laura-Ștefania Anton, expert within the Communication Unit, provided contributions regarding the activity of EUROPE DIRECT Bucharest. The final revision of the publication and the translation was provided by Mihai Sebe, Ana-Maria Anghelescu and Ionuț Marcu from the European Studies Unit.
We express our thanks to our colleagues in the European Union Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for their comments and suggestions during the drafting process.
The report (in English) is available here.