Brussels, 30/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Citizens' Assembly 2004 last week examined the latest developments at the European Convention, mainly feeling that the lack of cohesion in initiatives pursued by the sector-specific organisations and networks does not allow the organised civil society to get its main ideas sufficiently across to the Convention.
The members of the Citizens' Assembly 2004 decided that, in order to correct the harmful effects of many transversal initiatives taken to date, they should call for a two-day workshop to be organised at the European Parliament during the plenary of the European Convention on 24 and 25 June. They stress that this initiative takes into account the proposal made by the Praesidium of the Convention to make rooms available to European NGOs so that they may organise thematic meetings. The workshop, announces the Assembly, will be composed of four working groups covering horizontal rather than sectoral themes: - European identity and citizenship; - the European Union in a globalised world; - European democracy and subsidiarity; - social cohesion and sustainable development. (Information: Permanent Forum of the Civil Society, Square de Meeûs 25, Brussels 1050).