The Citizens’ Summit will look at the direction of the European Union, its impact on people living within its borders as well as its impact on global developments and democracy. The Summit will bring together leading civil society thinkers from across the EU, to exchange views on what Europe means for citizens and populations, as well as how we can move to a Europe that is delivering values and real progress for its populations, democracy and its role in the world.

The discussions will look at the growing inequalities, xenophobia, populism as well as the underlying drivers and hoped-for outcomes from the political developments in Europe.

The working method and participants to the Summit, ensuring gender parity and diversity, including in relation to age, will aim to break out of the “Brussels bubble” in the discussions on the future of the EU, to foster a dialogue by citizens for citizens and to create a common sense of ownership for the future. This will be the first of an annual Citizens’ Summit.

Background

The Civil Society Contact Group (CSCG) brings together the largest coalition of civil society organisations. It represents a vast and diverse community made up of eight NGOs and sectoral networks and platforms, that between them represent thousands of local, national, European or international non-governmental organisations (CONCORDi, Culture Action Europeii, the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learningiii, the European Public Health Allianceiv, the European Women’s Lobbyv, the Green 101vi, the Human Rights and Democracy Networkvii, the Social Platformviii).

Europe is facing challenges today that are not comparable to previous decades : loss of confidence amongst citizens in both political processes and the direction of society ; financial insecurity and an increase in risk in both employment and life prospects ; a rise in xenophobia and regional instability ; vast inequalities, including gender inequalities and reductions in the safety nets designed to mitigate crises ; short-term political solutions and re-trenched political thinking ; threats to priorities and sectors which are drivers of well-being and healthy populations such as education, culture, art, sustainable development, social and care provisions, health promotion.

Objectives and methodology

One of the EU’s overarching objectives is to generate economic prosperity, which was expected to increase well-being and social cohesion, create quality employment, reduce poverty and advance environmental protection. In addition, the economic crisis and the subsequent response of fiscal consolidation have created a situation where fundamental rights are portrayed by some as a luxury which can be suspended and “social” spending is being dramatically cut. This has created a schism between the ‘European project’ and the people which could prove fatal to the European construction.

The ‘Citizens’ Summit’ will address the question facing all those committed to a European project today, and attempt to meet the call by Commission President Barroso to increase the participation of citizens in Europe in the European debate.

The purpose of the Citizen’s Summit is to bring together 400 leaders from our different sectors : civil society, partners, policymakers and journalists, young people and the media from across the European Union.

The event will be organised partly based on the ‘Open Café’ methodology, to foster dialogue amongst participants in order to generate the innovation and cross-fertilisation that emerges from diversity. It will bring together mostly non-Brussels based participants to interact with those in the ‘Bubble’ to generate recommendations that are applicable and understandable to those working outside of the policymaking environment.

The discussion format is deliberately more participatory, democratic and dynamic than traditional policy discussions. The participants are the discussants, therefore the “formal” part of the agenda deliberately has been kept short. The aim is to activate participants to allow a cross-fertilisation of ideas and the emergence of new solutions in order to make the best of the two-day Summit.

This event will aim to challenge the current state of play. Our social model aims to ‘mop up’ the inefficiencies and inequalities of our current economic model whereas we urgently need a socioeconomic model that delivers social, cultural and environmental objectives. We cannot afford to lose the grounds that we have gained in freedoms, equality, including equality between women and men, life expectancy, education, solidarity with other countries and expression. We must look at the flaws and shortcomings in our public institutions, processes and ideologies that allowed us to reach a point of financial, economic and social crisis, as well as of raising tensions between the different groups in society in Europe.

The event will address different questions to those taking place elsewhere in Brussels. Whereas the official European Summit will mainly focus on short-term solutions, the Citizens’ Summit will look at the long-term ; where the prevailing economic and social model accepts inequality as an inevitable outcome of development, the event will discuss moving to greater societal well-being, equality and equity ; whereas current EU policy focusses on its 500 million consumers, the event will focus on its 500 million citizens, and the many non-citizens living within the EU borders ; as we may have reached the limit of competitiveness as a driving force for European development, this event will examine where the boundaries of the free market should lie ; whereas the political focus is on cuts and growth, the event will focus on social cohesion, investment and development ; finally where political debates skirt the issue on the growing anti-EU, antiintegration, anti-immigration sentiment, this event will tackle these issues directly and ask the question if not this EU, then what EU do we want and need ?

The venue is the Bozar in central Brussels, close to the Grand Place and Gare Central.

Political processes

This event builds on the political momentum of three processes and in response to the call of Commission President Barroso to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of EU citizens :

• The call of the European Parliament asking ‘the Commission to ask civil society and social partners to contribute an annual shadow report on the progress of the Member States regarding the headline targets and the implementation’, in its resolution of 1 December 2011 on the European Semester for Economic Policy Coordination (2011/2071(INI))

• The call of the Cypriot Presidency to involve social partners and NGOs “in the monitoring of the implementation of the strategy and throughout the process of the European Semester but also at national level, in the formulation and implementation of the National Reform Programmes.’

• The European Commission recognition that the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy should be based on partnerships that extend to ‘EU committees, to national parliaments and national, local and regional authorities, to social partners and to stakeholders and civil society so that everyone is involved in delivering on the vision’.

• The 2013 European Year for Citizens.

Format

Day 1 : Europe – revolution or evolution ?

13.00-13.20 Introduction and welcome by Vice-President of European Parliament for Civil Society, Isabelle Durant

13.20-13.30 Short introductory film

13.30-13.50 Monika Kosińska, Chair Civil Society Contact Group Assessment of the main challenges and suggestions for solutions : How is Europe impacting on the different sectors ? What are the questions for how to move forward ? What can Europe do ? What Europe do we need ?

13.50-14.30 Opening statements to raise questions and set the scene for discussion
 Saskia Sassen - Professor of Sociology, University of Columbia challenges to societies and economies

 Janis Emmanouilidis - European Policy Centre The New Pact for Europe

14:30-15:00 Questions and clarifications

15.00-15.30 Coffee break

15.30-17.30 Parallel discussions

Participants will be split into four workshops in order to generate debate and ideas to take forward recommendations. Groups will be mixed from across the sectors and include members of the Brussels bubble – policymakers, journalists and civil society. This will take the form of an open space/world café format with professional facilitation.

19.00- End Evening event (dinner and cultural event for all delegates) 2 Alternate : I. Video speech

Day 2 : MORNING SESSION : Towards a sustainable Europe

09.00-10.30 Breakout into the four parallel groups to continue previous days’ discussions.

10.30-11.00 Coffee

11.00-12.30 Presentation from groups and discussion (moderated by facilitator)

12.30-13:00 Closing session with feedback on Europe we want by 2020

Open discussions

Closing statement from Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso3 3 Alternate : P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, The European Ombudsman i