“The future is not to be foreseen, but to be made possible” . True to this quote, the European Commission committed itself to a new, unprecedented project starting in 2020: Making democracy a tangible experience, bringing it closer to EU citizens and implementing it together with civil society actors – that was and is the objective. As a result of pandemic-related delays, the European Union finally embarked on an unprecedented and complex democratic experiment in May 2021: a bottom-up debate on European reforms in the shape of a citizens’ assembly – The Conference on the Future of Europe. After a decade of crises and against the backdrop of the Corona pandemic, the European Union set out to address and overcome current challenges with the involvement of its citizens in a series of forums.

The European Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung therefore decided to contribute to these debates in 2021 by conducting a survey in twelve EU member states, focusing on representative sectors of society.
The aim of the research project was to find out whether and where EU citizens from the center of the society in different EU member states share common perspectives and values that underpin European integration. Do current political debates reflect what citizens expect from the EU and its member states? Which common Christian Democratic values and ideas can be found in the member states beyond the political debates and discourses? And what do these differences and commonalities mean for Europeanpolitics at both national and EU level? Which path should the Union take?

We cordially invite you to participate in our upcoming Online-Event on Thursday, March 17, 2022, starting at 2 p.m. CET, where the results of the representative survey “Perspectives on the future of Europe
from the center of European societies” will be presented. The European Office of the KAS, together with the Egmont Institute, is pleased to have secured the participation of Manfred Weber, Prof. Dr. Norbert
Lammert, Isabelle Garzon, Lena Düpont and Lídia Pereira for the event.

 

More info and programme here.

 

Please register here by 15 March.

 

(Photo credit: European commission)