The Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary calls for citizens’ ideas to be placed at the core during the Conference on the Future of Europe

On 19 June 2021, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, took part via video-conferencing in the inaugural plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica underlined that the aim of the Conference is to engage with citizens and hear their concerns and proposals.

The Parliamentary Secretary said she expects that the outcomes of the Conference would give an impulse and provide additional resolve and determination to be more active in doing work that is important for our citizens.

In her remarks to the participants, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica underlined that the foundations of the European Union are stable, and there is no need to change them. The Conference should become a place where a common goal lies above and beyond narrow interests. This is not the place where we should be competing for influence, rather, it is a forum to reaffirm European unity, she asserted.

The European Union has evolved from an audacious idea into reality and evidence of the Europeans’ ability to work together in order to live in a better, more secure and prosperous world. Our mission is not only to take care of the European Union today but also to make every effort for the EU to grow stronger, the Parliamentary Secretary underlined.

The aim of the Conference on the Future of Europe is to increase the role of people in shaping the EU’s future policy and enhancing its resilience. By the spring of 2022, the Conference is expected to reach conclusions and provide guidance on the future of Europe. Already now, any resident of Europe can visit the Conference’s multilingual digital platform and learn about events underway across Europe, get involved and share their ideas.

The plenary session is one of the central elements of the Conference on the Future of Europe at which the ideas stemming from the multilingual digital platform, the European citizens’ panels and national panels or events will be collected so that recommendations for the final report can be produced.

The EU institutions – the EU Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament – and European citizens, national parliaments, non-governmental organisations and social partners were represented at the inaugural session.

For further details concerning the Conference on the Future of Europe, see the information available at link.