Podcast - The Grassroots View: A new narrative for Europe (S2, E3)

The COVID-19 crisis has shown the importance of solidarity between EU Members States, institutions and citizens. In the wake of this experience, we discuss why the Conference on the future of Europe which has just kicked off is a new and important step in thinking together about our common European future.

We hear EESC President Christa Schweng set out the new narrative for Europe that the EESC will be pleading for in its role as an observer in the CoFoE executive board and pledge to mobilise the Committee's extensive network across organised civil society to ensure the broadest possible participation.

We also hear Guy Verhofstadt, MEP, member of the CoFoE executive board and former Belgian prime minister, who in 2001 proposed the Laeken Declaration which set in motion the European Convention, stress that Europe is at a crossroads, that it's time for it to chart its future path together with citizens.

And we hear Lorenzo Consoli, EU correspondent and an outstanding expert in European affairs, who says in his 30 years in Brussels he has never seen the EU engage in such an ambitious pan-European democratic exercise. (dm)