19 April 2021

The multilingual digital platform for the Conference on the Future of Europe was launched on 19 April 2021.

Available in 24 languages, the platform will give citizens from across the Union the opportunity to present their ideas and comments on initiatives proposed by others, as well as to create and participate in events.

The Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe (composed of representatives from the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission) invited all EU citizens to contribute to shaping their own future and that of Europe as a whole.

On the occasion of the press conference for the platform roll out, the representatives from the three institutions encouraged EU citizens to participate actively and confidently in this wide unprecedented process of deliberative democracy, which will run for one calendar year.

The platform is thus a pioneering tool, which will enable an open, inclusive and transparent discussion on a number of key priorities and challenges for the Union. People from all social backgrounds, in all Member States, will have the opportunity to air what they expect from the EU: their voices will influence the future direction and decision-making of the Union. The Joint Presidency is committed to following up the outcomes of the Conference.

The platform will be promoted on social media with the hashtag #TheFutureIsYours.

Background

The platform will ensure full transparency – a key principle of the Conference – as all contributions and outcomes of the events will be collected, analysed, monitored and made public. The main ideas and recommendations from the platform will be debated within European citizens' committees and plenary sessions, which will subsequently lead to the conclusions resulting from the Conference.

All events recorded on the platform will be displayed in an interactive map, enabling citizens to navigate and register for online events. In order to prepare and promote their initiatives, organisers can rely on the toolkit available on the Platform. All participants in the events will have to comply with the Charter of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which sets out the rules for a respectful pan-European debate.

The digital platform is organised around a number of key themes such as: climate change and environment; health; stronger and fairer economy; social justice and employment; the EU in the world; values and rights, the rule of law, and security; digital transformation; European democracy; migration; education, culture, youth and sports. These themes are complemented with an "open box" for cross-cutting themes ("other ideas"), so that citizens are free to raise any issue of interest to them, in a truly bottom-up approach.

The platform also publishes information on the structure and activities of the Conference and is open to all EU citizens, as well as EU institutions and bodies, national parliaments, national and local authorities and civil society, and fully complies with EU data protection and privacy rules.

[Source: Europe Portal]