What future do citizens want for Europe? In each of the 27 Member States, this question is currently being answered by citizens. Between February and March 2007, 27 European citizens consultations are being held. The answers to this question will be summarised by European citizens into a joint “European Citizens’ Perspective on the Future of Europe”. This will then be presented to the heads of the EU institutions in the European Parliament shortly before the EU Council summit in June.
On the 24th of February Mr. Günter Gloser, the Minister of State for Europe, will inaugurate the European Citizens’ Consultation in Germany in the name of the event’s patron, the Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. This will take place on the 24th and 25th of February in the premises of the Foreign Office in Berlin, simultaneously with Citizens’ Consultations in Latvia, Hungary, Belgium and Slovakia. It will fall to Mr Gloser to bring the 200 citizens from all over Germany to an unprecedented agreement: for the first time since the founding of the European Union, citizens from throughout Europe will be simultaneously consulted as to their opinion on the future of Europe.
We are pleased to invite you to the European Citizens’ Consultation in Germany: available to representatives of the media and decision-makers from politics, business and society, an observers’ programme will take place during the Consultation, on the 24th of February 2007 between 12.30 and 15.00 o’clock. The observer programme offers the opportunity for you to meet citizens and project managers alike, and to gain background information on this unique, pan-European process of dialogue and participation.
Please register for the observer programme taking place during the Consultation by sending an e-mail to info@europaeische-buergerkonferenzen.de. More information on the observer programme and on the European Citizens’ Consultations project is available from www.european-citizens-consultations.eu and www.europaeische-buergerkonferenzen.de under “Presse”.
The European Citizens’ Consultations are carried out by a pan-European consortium of independent organisations, under the leadership of the Belgian King Baudouin Foundation. The European Citizens’ Consultation in Germany is sponsored by the Robert Bosch Foundation, supported by the Foreign Office and planned and implemented by the communications consultancy IFOK. 15 further Regional Citizens’ Consultations taking place in Germany will be financed by the German Foreign Office.
This project, covering the whole territory of the EU, is also co-financed by the European Commission, and benefits from the largest budgetary investment in the context of the Commission’s “Plan D” communication strategy.
Contact: IFOK GmbH, Cornelia Arras-Hoch, media coordination, German citizens consultation, Tel: +49 (0)30.53 60 77-37, Mobil: +49 (0)173-62 09 835, E-Mail: cornelia.arras-hoch@ifok.de, Neue Grünstrasse 18, 10179 Berlin, www.ifok.de
