Press point by Guy VERHOFSTADT (Renew, BE), Mikuláš BEK, Czech Minister for European Affairs and Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography after the end of the Feedback Event of the Conference on the Future of Europe. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Brussels

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

press point

future of the European Union (T)

ŠUICA, Dubravka (EC)

conference on the future of Europe (T)

BEK, Mikuláš

Conference on the Future of Europe - Feedback Event: Joint Press point by Guy VERHOFSTADT (Renew, BE), Mikuláš BEK, Czech Minister for European Affairs and Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/66895259/1669985452300_I234215Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (Renew, BE), MEP, Thank you very much. My conclusion of the morning session is that this feedback is a very useful and important moment of this conference on the future of Europe, because it gives the possibility to citizens to confront the three institutions with the progress we have made in implementing the conclusions of the conference.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (Renew, BE), MEP, And personally, I think that this is an experiment, not only an experiment, it needs to be a common practise in the European Union that in the future, as already the Commission has started with citizens panels inside their policymaking, it will be good that between the three institutions we have an agreement that also in the next period of the legislative cycle, from 24 to 29, there would be a similar citizens participation organised in the Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (Renew, BE), MEP, And my second remark and conclusion is that a lot have been done by the institutions to implement the conclusions of the conference, for example, certainly on climate change, certainly on social policies. We see progress points have been taken on board that have been concluded during the conference. At the other hand, we see also that in security, defence, foreign policy, education actually, but also energy, there is a lack of progress in implementing the conclusions of the conference and I think that is the consequence of problems we have on the institutional level.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT (Renew, BE), MEP, And therefore, I want to recall by the request of the European Parliament to as fast as possible, start this debate on the reform of the Union, especially on abolishing unanimity in the Union in the coming months and years. And I'm very hopeful that it will create a breakthrough in the policies of the European Union and give the possibility then to react positively to all the proposals that the conference has made.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mikuláš BEK, Czech Minister for European Affairs, Thank you very much. I have the pleasure to mostly agree with Mr. Verhofstadt and to partially disagree with him. It's quite clear that we agree amongst the institutions on many important issues and recommendations from the conference, especially in areas mentioned by Mr. Verhofstadt. I think the progress we have reached over the last couple of months in the area of climate change or social policy is a good signal for the citizens that we are able to progress even within the framework of present treaties.

SOUNDBITE (English), Mikuláš BEK, Czech Minister for European Affairs, And as you all know, the Council has no unified view of the treaty changes and qualified majority of all voting. But these issues has been put on the table of the council during the Czech presidency and we are convinced we are able to make some progress in the council during the time left, by the end of this year and during the next year during the Swedish and Spanish presidencies. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography, Thank you very much. I have a pleasure to be present at this conference of the future of Europe from the day one. So I was pushing from Croatian presidency and we managed during the Portuguese presidency to start this conference. As you know, we live in unprecedented times and since we live in unprecedented times, I think we need more democracy, since we need the more democracy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography, I am more than happy today that we somehow managed to finish this conference of the future of Europe. But it doesn't mean that our work stops here. So this is a feedback event which we promised and which we committed to our citizens when we just signed our joint declaration on the conference. So I think that the results are here. We have, as you know, 49 proposals.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography, There is the first outcome, which is very important, that is that we have now deliberative democracy, be part of our policymaking process. So as you know, the Commission is setting up first a new citizens panel on the 16th of this month on food waste. So ahead of each key legislation, we will select citizens randomly again. And we will talk to citizens, listen to them, and we will take their ideas on board while draughting our policies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography, Next, the citizen panel will be on my mobility learning. Third one will be on digital, said Metaverse. So we are doing our job and this is very important for us. So this what be what we learn from citizens we are now implementing. So I hope that we will continue with this process and that other institutions will also come on board.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography, The we are aligned with Parliament at this moment. When we talk about unanimity, we are on the same position. Let me talk about triggering convention. We are also in the same position. Of course we are waiting for the Council to align and we need some maybe more dialogue. Thank you.

Conference on the Future of Europe - Feedback Event: Joint Press point by Guy VERHOFSTADT (Renew, BE), Mikuláš BEK, Czech Minister for European Affairs and Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission

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