Citizens sent out their recommendations to EU leaders meeting in Lisbon and Brussels this week to sign the EU's new Treaty and hold their regular year-end European summit meeting.
The results stem from the six Plan D projects - including debates, consultations and polls throughout the EU - organised by the European Movement International, the King Baudouin Foundation, Notre Europe, Deutsche Gesellschaft, European House Budapest and CENASCA-CISL over the last year.
Citizens want to be better involved and demanded the EU be put on national curricula for schools and universities. They also seek more "direct participation" through regular consultations, debates and public hearings. This call was endorsed by Communication Commissioner Margot Wallström, who spoke out in favour of organising "citizen summits" in parallel to the regular European summits, where EU leaders set out the main political direction for the Union.
Speaking at the Plan D concluding conference on 7-9 December, Wallström stressed that "public debate is vital" for European democracy. "It is the lifeblood of democracy, but also requires a dialogue between the people and the policymakers. Representative democracy needs to be supported by deliberative and participatory democracy."
Citizens have very concrete ideas of what the EU should be doing. For instance, in the area of social and cohesion policy, people want the Union to "fight the black market, reduce salary gaps, promote gender equality and ease unemployment". Moreover, citizens recognise migration as "one of the most pressing issues" to be tackled by the EU. But citizens also speak out in favour of a stronger role for the EU on the world stage, speaking with a "single voice", defending European "social, energy and environmental standards" and promoting free trade and development.
