Power to the People Webinar: “Who Decides in Europe? … For Farmers, Nature & Consumers”

Recording / Slides for downloading: Isabel Paliotta / Vivien A. Schmidt

Dear friends!

In many European countries farmers are taking to the streets to demand a change in the rules governing the food system, from farm to shops, all the way to the fork – touching all our lives in the process. The highly competitive and industrialized food system is seen by many as a burden for farmers, consumers, the environment and climate. While there is less consensus among  protesters about what exactly needs to change, the feeling of political powerlessness in the decision-making process in the European Union and in the member states is palpable for many – as are severe conflicts of interests. With the EU quickly backtracking on key nature and agricultural reforms as response to the farmer protests, many ask:

Who decides in Europe?

This is why we as Power to the People Group (see our previous webinars here) are hosting our next transnational, multilingual and interactive webinar  covering this topic. It will be the start of a  series on participatory democracy in Europe. With expert speakers we take a close look at how European democracy really works – both the written as well as unwritten rules between parliament, governments, civil society and lobbyism. What to keep and what needs to be changed to make sure that the priorities and values of the European citizens are not forgotten? We will hear from those involved at different stages of the decision-making process.

Knowledge is power. Power to change.

We aim not to answer all the questions on agriculture, food pricing, nature and climate. What we want to do is collect and distribute knowledge about the decision making processes as they are, and as they could be. European democracy is a vast sea and in this event we want to give you all a map to better navigate it – not least with the European elections coming up. With knowledge comes the power to change.

Our speakers include:

• Prof Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and International Relations in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies; Professor of Political Science at Boston University andFounding Director of BU’s Center for the Study of Europe.
• Isabel Paliotta, Policy Officer for Sustainable Food Systems at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
• ⁠MEP Jutta Paulus, Negotiator for the Nature Restoration Law and Methane Regulation (Greens, Germany)
• Marta Messa, Secretary General for Slow Food International
• Bernd Schmitz, farmer and managing director of the “Working Group for Peasant Agriculture e.V. (AbL)” in Germany
• Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute and one of the leaders of the “Democratic Odyssey”, a campaign for a permanent European Peoples’ Assembly
• Ingeborg Niestroy, RIFS – Research Institute for Sustainability (Potsdam), project coordinator of the Real Deal project on citizen participation for the European Green Deal. www.realdeal.eu
• Further guests are invited. The online list will be updated regularly.

Date: Thursday, 22 February 2024, 1900 – 2100h CET

Simultaneous interpretation is provided for English, German, Italian and French.

This is the first event of our new series “Building a ‘Digital European Public Sphere’ Participatory democracy in the EU: current challenges and future perspectives” as part of the Democratic Odyssey for a permanent European peoples’ assembly (more here). All our previous events are available here.

Please, join us for this event and invite others!

Everyone at the Power to the People Group

A cooperation of European Alternatives, European University Institute, Europe Calling, Mehr Demokratie, Another Europe is Possible, Citizens Takeover Europe, ECI Campaign and The Democratic Odyssey