From January to April 2007, 25 national consultations take place at Member State level to discuss the overarching question “What is needed to achieve the Europe we want?”
The Final Consultation in May 2007 is held in Brussels as an intense debate with a small number of citizen volunteers from the national consultations, the project partners, and political experts.
The time is ripe for civil society to participate in providing the Commission with concrete proposals on how to promote a European public space where citizens are better informed and engaged in EU policies and in the debate on the future of Europe.
In October 2006, an "Agenda Setting Event" took place in Brussels. It aimed to craft a "European Citizens’ Agenda", to identify key topics for discussion at national events. This dialogue is designed to set an example and aims to make heard citizen’s voices of who are at the heart of the European project. For more information on this event, see the European Citizens’ Consultations website.
A further example of citizen dialogue may be seen in the "European Civil Society Forum" called EMPOWER (due to take place in November 2006, in Bergamo - Italy), which is also in the context of the White Paper on a European Consultation Policy.
Background information
It all began in 2005 when Margot Wallström launched the European Commission Action Plan for Communication, following the wake-up call of the rejection of the EU’s Constitutional Treaty in two referenda in 2005.
There then followed a White Paper on a European Communication Policy and an open online consultation in 2006. The White Paper aimed to meet the challenge of laying down a European Union Communication Policy.
