Europe Calling “The EU of the Future – Part 1: The Franco-German Expert Report on EU Reform”

Recording:

Dear friends,

Last year, the Conference on the Future of the European Union presented its recommendations for the future of the EU. It was preceded by an unprecedented participatory process: randomly drawn citizens from all EU countries, together with representatives of associations and EU institutions, discussed for a year in various constellations and finally agreed on 49 recommendations for the reform of the EU.

Their conclusion: the EU must change in order to become fit for the challenges of the future, be it climate change, the rise of anti-democratic forces or the forthcoming enlargement of the Union.

300 days before the next European elections, we are therefore launching a series of topics on the “EU of the future” as Europe Calling and asking:

Where does the EU stand on the road to reform?

While everyone agrees on the principle, it is clear that member states, the European Parliament, EU institutions and civil society have very different ideas about what such a reform should look like and which of the 49 recommendations should be implemented and how.

Part 1: The Franco-German Expert Report on EU Reform

In January 2023, the two Ministers of State for Europe of Germany and France, Anna Lührmann and Laurence Boone, launched a working group of twelve experts from academia to identify possible avenues for reform that will make the EU fit to welcome new member states. The results are eagerly awaited for 19.9.2023, some proposals could even be implemented before the European elections.

Thus, we make this the topic of our first webinar in the series “EU of the Future” and ask:

What exactly do the Franco-German experts propose? How can it be implemented? How does this fit in with the recommendations of citizens and academia? What do you, as a citizen, think?

Our guests are:

• Dr Anna Lührmann, Minister of State for Europe and Climate at the Federal Foreign Office
• Dr Thu Nguyen, Senior Policy Fellow, Jacques Delors Centre & Member of the Franco-German Expert Group on EU Institutional Reforms
• Prof Kalypso Nicolaidis, European University Institute & Chair of the CEPS-SWP High-Level Group on bolstering EU Democracy
• Huub Verhoeven, Citizens’ Ambassador to the Conference on the Future of Europe

Date: Thursday, 21 September 2023, 18:30 – 20:00 hrs CEST (Berlin/Brussels)

The webinar will be simultaneously translated into German and English.

Please, do join us and invite others.

With European greetings,

Maximilian Fries and everyone at Europe Calling e.V.