The future of Europe

Future of Europe: the EESC engages itself in the debate and takes stance

The EESC is actively engaged in the current debate on the future of Europe with a view to contributing to shaping a future for the European Union which meets the demands and expectations of civil society organisations, and of Europeans citizens at large, and to influencing the EU's thinking and decisions on the course of action to take in the years to come, ahead of the European Parliament's elections in June 2019. So far, the EESC has contributed in two ways to this debate.

First and to follow on from a request made by Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker, who asked the EESC in April to set out the views and priorities of the EU’s civil society organisations on the future development of the European Union, on the basis of the Commission's White Paper on the Future of Europe published in March 2017, which outlined five possible scenarios for how the EU could evolve between now and 2025, the Committee adopted a resolution on 5 July 2017 as the EESC's first contribution to the EU-wide debate on the future of Europe. This resolution focuses primarily on the principles that should underpin further European integration and the methodology to achieve this.

Second, the EESC has held, in May and the beginning of June 2017, a series of national debates, in the 27 Member States concerned, to hear the views of civil society organisations on the five scenarios in the White Paper on the Future of Europe. These national debates are part of an ongoing broad discussion process in the months ahead initiated by the European Institutions across the EU and involving citizens, civil society organisations and public authorities alike. A compilation of the outcome of these national debates is available.

Ideas presented during the debates will feed into the EESC's ongoing work and in particular into an opinion, to be drawn up in the months to come, to enable a more thorough examination of certain specific issues in relation with the EU's medium- and long-term development.