The Conference on the Future of Europe was launched on 9 May 2021 (Europe Day) in Strasbourg. It is a unique opportunity to strengthen the democratic dimension of the European Union and to restore citizens' trust in the European project.
A multilingual
digital platform allows people to engage with one another and discuss their proposals on the key topics of discussion in the EU's 24 official languages.
The Role of the CoR
As representative EU body of the level of government that is closest to citizens, the European Committee of the Regions is committed to having a significant political role to play.
The
CoR delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe met, on 19 June, the 415 other delegates at the inaugural meeting of the plenary of the Conference.
The objectives of this meeting was to reach out to them to strengthen the role of local and regional authorities in the democratic functioning of the European Union and to promote the territorial dimension of EU policies. The
CoR delegation is composed of 18 regionally and locally elected politicians (9 men and 9 women).
The CoR's input to the Conference will
further build on the active participation of its representatives in the Executive Board (CoR President) and the Conference Plenary (CoR delegation).
Other CoR contributions
The role of the CoR further includes:
- the work of all its statutory bodies, through debates in the plenary sessions and the Commission;
- legislative work, through the adoption and follow-up of relevant opinions;
- the recommendations of the
High-Level Group on European Democracy, chaired by Herman Van Rompuy, former President of the European Council;
- events such as the European Week of Regions and Cities and EuroPCom, and
surveys among locally elected politicians and citizens;
- networks like the associations of local and regional authorities all across the EU, the
network of former CoR members and the newly launched
network of EU local councillors;
- inputs gathered from local and cross-border citizens' panels led by CoR members and jointly held with EU institutions whenever possible. In this regard, the CoR has launched a
cooperation with the Bertelsmann Foundation to make cities and regions' voices heard throughout the Conference with innovative participatory processes and online tools to host citizens' panels in the second half of 2021;
- CoR own local dialogues, as already started last year and continued this year will be at the disposal of CoR members. An
information kit and an
application form can be found on this page.
The CoR will present its final contribution to the Conference at the 9th European Summit of Regions and Cities, to be held during the French Presidency of the Council on 3-4 March 2022.