Local and regional leaders met today in Timisoara, a European Capital of Culture for 2023, to discuss implementing the proposals of the Conference on the Future of Europe ahead of the European elections in 2024. The delegates from all corners of Europe united around the objective of strengthening European citizenship through promoting European identity and democratic values.
The politicians, who came to Timişoara at the invitation of Alin-Adrian Nica (RO/EPP), President of Timiş County Council acknowledged the important process of the Conference on the Future of Europe which clearly demonstrated the citizens' call to the EU institutions to communicate better on how the EU makes a difference in their everyday lives and how our shared values are protected.
From the Conference on the Future of Europe to European elections: strengthening trust in EU democracy
In his opening remarks Alin Nica underlined that "In a cornerstone moment for Europe, just before the EU elections, we meet in Timisoara, the European Capital of Culture to discuss democracy and EU values. The Conference on the Future of Europe demonstrated that citizens want to have a voice in the decision-making process of the EU and participatory democracy strengthens representative democracy and through it, the resilience of the European Union."
In a special intervention, Siegfried Mureșan, MEP, Vice-President of the EPP, Vice-Chair of the EPP-EP Group "Next year will be very important for Romania. We will have European, local, parliamentary, and presidential elections. This is why we must be united in showing people the benefits of the EU and we need to involve the private sector, the citizens, and local authorities in the decisions we take at European level. This way, we fight populist and extremist tendencies and strengthen European democracy in our country."
Tanya Histova, mayor of Gabrovo and Chair of the CoR SEDEC Commission, underlined that "rest assured that our efforts on the ground to support the belonging of citizens to a common European project, values, identity and citizenship and to counter disinformation about the EU are a daily struggle. But those efforts will remain in vain if the citizens of Romania and Bulgaria are not allowed to enjoy the full span of rights coming with EU membership. We are grateful to President Von der Leyen for addressing this issue in her State of the Union Speech last week. Delaying this process for the two countries is a danger for our European identity, for European citizenship and dangerous for Europe's unity before the European elections.''
The Conference on the Future of Europe marked an innovation in EU democratic practices. Its conclusions provide concrete recommendations stemming from dialogue between citizens, institutions and stakeholders. Regional and local politicians have made important contributions to the COFE work and have demonstrated a strong commitment to pursue their implementation. Many of the proposals should become policy deliverables for the next EU mandate 2024-2029 and therefore an integral part of the campaign for the next European elections in 2024.
European Values and identity: strengthening EU citizenship
Building societal resilience coupled with a stronger sense of EU citizenship needs to be part of a comprehensive strategy which starts at an early age and is pursued equally in both urban and rural areas, thus meaningfully supporting citizens' well-informed decision-making. It remains similarly important to ensure support for trustworthy and pluralistic local and regional media.
Alin-Adrian Nica (RO/EPP), president of Timiş County Council said 'I believe we must invest more in education programmes, as the foundation of healthy societies, immune to manipulation and as basis for instilling the European identity withing the citizens, who should feel not only as citizens of their city, region or country, but also of Europe. This could start with ensuring more civic education classes, exercising youth active citizenship and including European history lessons in the school curricula. How else are the young generations supposed to feel and adhere to their European identity and share the same values if we do not teach a common history of our European Union? As local and regional authorities, we should become hubs of European communication, Houses of European Democracy!'
"Values, identity, citizenship, are not just slogans. They represent the oxygen of the European integration. They are firmly rooted in the EU's aspirations for increased democracy, participation, and a shared sense of community across the EU. Local and regional authorities, together with citizens' representations, should work hand in hand to ask for mainstreaming the resources at the level closest to the citizens" said Tanya Histova, mayor of Gabrovo
Our rich and diverse cultural heritage is an important component of European citizenship and of European identity, as it is also clearly stated in several COFE proposals. Meeting in Timișoara, the 2023 European Capital of Culture, is thus particularly relevant. The challenge for the European Union, in this context, is to inspire belonging and ownership based on diversity, keeping together the local, national and European dimensions.
Timișoara - European Capital of Culture for 2023. A city focusing on the people's influence & providing the citizens with the confidence that through involvement & participation, they will be able to produce significant changes in the city of Timișoara.