The European Institute of Romania (EIR) announces the publication of the Report – The Conference on the Future of Europe. Views from Romanian citizens. The publication presents the conclusions of the events organised by EIR in the margins of the Conference on the Future of Europe, done in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and through EUROPE DIRECT Bucharest, between April 2021 – March 2022.
“Carrying out this series of events in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we wanted to create agoras for Romanian citizens, through which they could advance proposals, ideas, and concerns about the future of the European project. By analysing the shared impressions, we noticed a high level of trust in the European Union, manifested by a series of specific requests. Some of these include enhancing the EU’s competences in certain areas such as health, while others are the expression of some concerns about economic stability or democratic resilience.” – Oana-Mihaela Mocanu, director general of the European Institute of Romania
The Romanian citizens who took part in the debates shared their views on the following topics: digitalization and digital transformation, climate change and the environment, sustainable mobility, economic recovery, agriculture and sustainable development, social justice and jobs, education, health, European democracy and citizen participation, misinformation, polarization and populism, the EU in the world and the transatlantic relationship, the Union’s involvement in the enlargement policy and in its neighbourhood, resilience and the future of the EU, Romania’s contribution to the Conference on the Future of Europe.
The high interest in taking part in the events led to the identification of various opinions regarding the positions of the Romanian citizens on different European policies and strategies. It also helped to achieve a better understanding of the way they look at the united and cohesive future of the European Union and to grasp the opportunity of a more resilient European Union, both internally and externally. Thus, the future of the European Union means, in the eyes of many citizens, the development of multisectoral resilience: in the EU’s neighbourhood, in terms of digital and cyber systems, health and education systems, agriculture and production chains, security and the internal market with its fundamental freedoms. An emphasis was also put on the transformations and reforms we need so that future events do not take us by surprise and do not generate a negative effect on our society.
The report can be accessed on the EIR’s website, being disseminated at the same time on the multilingual platform of the Conference on the Future of Europe.