Press releases & Statements

Tourists are flying into space and life on Mars seems a less distant possibility. Meanwhile Europeans are busy trying to create a buzz about our future here on earth.

Civil society organisations can co-sign this letter by filling out the following form. The deadline is Friday, 18th of June, 18:00 CEST. The letter will be sent to the members of the Executive Board on Saturday morning, 19th of June. 

Citizens and civil society have long waited for the Conference on the Future of Europe (hereafter: the Conference) to officially start, on Sunday, 9th May 2021, in Strasbourg. The EU institutions have promised us a Conference that should be a world-wide innovative exercise in democratic reform and citizen participation.

Right in time for the kick-off of the Conference on the Future of Europe, CTOE’s Working Group on “the constitutional question” released on May 8th the first report on their Europe-wide public consultation started at the beginning of 2021.

The long-awaited Conference on the Future of Europe (hereafter: the Conference) will be officially launched on Sunday, 9 May 2021, in Strasbourg. If implemented well, the Conference could be an important step towards a more democratic and effective European Union that works for everyone. 

On the week of 9th of May, Europe Day, the Citizens Take Over Europe is organising a series of online events in cooperation with its 56 members of the coalition, taking place across Europe, online, and in different languages.

We, as Europeans, will not passively witness again in the future the dismantling of our Union because of intergovernmental logic and internal conflicts. The EU’s democratic deficit undermines not only its legitimacy but also the capacity of EU member states to tackle today’s challenges. We call for an ambitious institutional reform to reshape the Europe of tomorrow.

We are writing to you at the outset of what we hope will be a historical semester of the European Union. The EU is at a crossroads in its history: the need for the European Union to transform into a social, sustainable, democratic, and citizen-led project is greater than ever before. This is why we, citizens and civil society organisations from across Europe, are calling on you to make true the promise of the proposed Conference on the Future of Europe to guide the EU out of the many crises with which it is confronted.

For a transparent and participatory citizens-centered Conference on the Future of Europe

In a world in which democracy increasingly seems fragile, the citizens and civil society of Belarus are reminding us of the importance of standing up to defend and expand democratic rights. Their struggle is our struggle and an inspiration to us all.