Europeans met in Florence and connected remotely for the third and final session of the panel on European democracy, rights, rule of law and security. They came up with conclusions on how to reform the EU, protect democracy, strengthen citizen participation in the EU and tackle discrimination.

rights of the individual

human rights

Gender equality

Conference on the Future of Europe: citizens draw conclusions on rule of law, EU values and rights

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Over the weekend, the second of four European Citizens Panels met in Florence,

as part of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

with some participants dialling in remotely from across Europe!

including the way forward for European democracy,

They divided into smaller groups to get to grips with specific topics

and then voted on their recommendations at the end of the weekend.

that all Europeans feel part of the European project.

They recommended enhancing citizen participation

to be set up alongside existing EU bodies.

We will be able to channel the energy of the citizens

in order to convert it into real proposals,

so we can make sure that politicians comply with their political programmes.

A key concern was the need to defend European values.

The Panellists recommended changing the budget conditionality mechanism.

if their breaches of the rule of law affect the EU budget.

Citizens recommended all rule of law violations be sanctioned.

There are member states who are part of the Union

if everyone is following the rules that we all set together.

Citizens also drew up conclusions for how to tackle discrimination in the EU.

The issue I'm more concerned with is gender equality and work-life balance.

Because I think that in many, many countries,

there is a big need for rules and of equal distribution of the burden of work.

One of their suggestions was to set up anti-discrimination quotas

Companies who meet these quotas would have access to subsidies or tax breaks.

Jorge, Joy, and Valentina are among 20 citizen representatives in this panel

who will present the panel's conclusions at the next plenary session

of the Conference in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The recommendations will feed into a final report,

which EU institutions then have to follow up on.