EFFE and the Conference on the Future of Europe.

For the 2022 Europe Day, EFFE was present at the closing ceremony of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which took place at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. In the presence of the Presidents of the European Parliament, the Commission and the French one, the ceremony marked the end of this year-long democratic exercise in which EFFE participated.

The trio received the final report on the results of the conference from the co-chairs of the conference executive board. It includes 49 proposals with concrete objectives and more than 320 actions for the EU institutions to follow under nine themes including health, social justice and employment. These elements are based in particular on the recommendations of the citizens’ panels, on the proposals from the multilingual digital platform and on the discussions held during the various plenary sessions.

EFFE has been actively contributing to the process over the last few months. The federation was indeed consulted as an expert for the last meeting of the first citizens’ panel “a stronger economy, social justice, jobs/education, culture, sport/digital transformation” at the end of February. In addition, EFFE had joined the Civil Society Convention on the Future of Europe, a large pan-European network composed by 72 organisations, that aimed to create a link between members of civil society and the institutional framework of the Conference. In the context of this Convention, EFFE joined the cluster dedicated to Social Europe, led by Solidar, which brought together issues related to social protection, working conditions, equal access to opportunities and a sustainable economic model. By contributing directly to the recommendations of this cluster, EFFE was able to put forward certain social priorities that were presented in plenary to the various actors of the conference. Some of these were retained in the report, such as ensuring appropriate social and health care for the elderly by supporting proximity care provision.

All the proposals will be carefully examined by the different institutions with a first feedback at the European Council in June or concrete proposals at the State of the Union speech of Ursula Von der Leyen in September. In addition, a feedback event will take place to inform citizens in the fall of 2022.