The Vice-President of the European Commission, Dubravka Šuica, the Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, and MEP Guy Verhofstadt, who co-chairs the Executive Committee of the Conference on the Future of Europe (see EUROPE 12694/9, 12686/32), presented the digital and multilingual platform of this pan-European consultation on Monday 19 April.
“Dear European citizens, now the floor is yours!”, said Mrs Šuica, convinced that the platform will really put citizens at the heart of the reflection on the future of the European Union. She said the platform will allow every EU citizen, wherever they live in the world, to find out about debates near their home. Each participant will be able to propose ideas in the nine suggested themes - including health, climate, fundamental values and the EU in the world - and propose new themes.
The platform is available in all 24 official EU languages thanks to an automatic translation tool and a participant will even be able to contribute in an official national language, such as Catalan. The creators of the platform hope that the content resources available on the dedicated website and the online format will attract the interest of a less informed public that is generally less involved in European issues.
In order to ensure that the principles laid down in the Conference Charter are respected and to avoid disinformation or even misuse of the platform for purposes other than the debate on Europe, a multi-stage moderation will be put in place. It will be possible, according to one source, to “hide inappropriate content under strict conditions and even block a contributor with harmful intentions”.
The data via the platform will be used to produce, thanks to artificial intelligence and a team of analysts from the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), reports that are more qualitative than quantitative and that will feed into the debates of the citizens’ agoras and the plenary sessions of the Conference.
In this respect, Mrs Šuica mentioned holding four agoras, the first of which is to take place at the end of June, and four plenary sessions. The launch event is scheduled for 9 May, but none of the three co-chairs have confirmed that it will take place in Strasbourg in the European Parliament.
Guy Verhofstadt described the interactive digital platform as a real “hub” between events taking place on the ground at local, regional, national and European level. This is not a consultation or another Eurobarometre survey, he insisted.
Asked about a possible treaty change demanded by citizens, the Belgian Liberal said that “nothing was impossible”, as the interinstitutional declaration laying the foundations for the Conference remains mute on the issue (see EUROPE 12675/6). The Commission Vice-President stressed the importance of not preempting the outcome of the forthcoming debates, which will last at least one year, with first political conclusions expected in spring 2022 under the French Presidency of the EU Council.
Mrs Zacarias promised that she would promote the platform to her counterparts at the General Affairs Council on Tuesday (see separate news item), so that Member States can mobilise to launch the debate on the future of the EU. Regarding the financial resources needed to organise the Conference and manage the online platform, she estimated that the benefits would far outweigh the costs involved.
Participate in the platform: https://bit.ly/2QHakRK (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)