The Future of Europe: from citizens to the State of the Union
On 13 September 2017 the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker will deliver his annual State of the Union speech before the European Parliament to discuss the next steps for the EU. He will take into account the feedback that citizens have given during the debate on the future of Europe.
Here is a summary of your contribution on social media and via the feedback webpage.
Since the announcement of the first White Paper on the Future of Europe in March by President Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission received feedback in the form of comments to social media posts on its main social media channels and webpage, posts on various social media channels and longer contributions in the form of blogs or online articles.
The five scenarios
In five months’ time (from March to the end of July) the #FutureOfEurope debate had over 130,000 mentions on social media, with around 45,000 Twitter accounts involved. The poll on the five scenarios published by the European Commission Facebook page summed the highest engagement by interactions. 32,000 users took the poll on different Facebook pages. What were your favourite scenarios? The most voted was by far “Doing much more together”, followed by “Those who want more do more”. The least voted was “Carrying on”. Through the online consultations, citizens expressed exactly the same order of preferences.
Among the ways to engage in the debate on the future of Europe: our website. In less than four months, over 1,500 citizens from 22 countries have submitted their opinion via the online consultation. Most of them advocate a strong, ambitious and united EU that is able to communicate better on issues that affect our everyday life. They showed overwhelming support for respecting democracy, fundamental rights and EU values.
Some of the views received:
“Tant qu’une véritable politique économique de convergence fiscale n’aura pas lieu, le sentiment eurosceptique sera fort présent.” (Grégoire, France)
“I come from Poland, I study in the UK and soon I will move to France for my year-long internship. Because of these, I came to appreciate a lot of the things the EU does for me, which affect me personally. Thanks to EU legislation, I enjoy the same course fees as UK students do; being able to cross borders just like that, is something I just got used to. In short, the EU is a lifesaver for people who travel like me or even more.” (Marek, Poland)
“It doesn’t make sense to criticise the EU in the third person. WE are the EU and we have created the EU to help us — the citizens of Europe.” (Ulrik, Denmark)
To what extent will your ideas, proposals and concerns inspire President Juncker’s State of the Union address on 13 September? Find out through our Facebook event and following live the event on this page. Interpretation in the 24 EU official languages will be available.
