On Monday 8 May, the European Commission organised an
intergenerational debate around the future of Europe at its Madrid
Headquarters. Two representatives of EuroCitizens were
invited to attend together with fifty-eight Spanish citizens drawn from all over Spain.
The debate was moderated by the journalist María Ramírez with regular input from
Jaume Duch, Spokesperson for and Director-General of Communication of the
European Parliament.
The audience was divided into two groups, one for the under-thirties
and the other for older citizens, mainly 60+. In the event, there seemed little
difference between the points made by both groups, with all their attention on
the future of the Union and very little reminiscing about the past. However, it
was clear that the older group’s opinions were clearly
tinged by their experience of pre- and post-Accession Spain.
All were enthusiastic about the European Union while quite
open about its shortcomings. However, their focus was clearly on fixing the
Union rather than leaving it. One of the problems the Union faces is that
people are not always aware of which problems can be tackled by the EU and
which ones are purely the responsibility of their own national governments, even
though Brussels often ends up getting the blame when expectations are
disappointed.
There was a clear consensus that the EU needed to get closer
to its citizens, possibly by working at the municipal level, through schools
and through twinning projects. Indeed, this debate was organised with a view to
reaching a more typical audience than more traditional events aimed at civil
servants and politicians – “the same old faces”.
Brexit was mentioned several times. It seemed that, while it was regretted, it had already been discounted and people want to
get on with developing the European project. Jaume Duch made a point which was
echoed by several other speakers: while people were initially worried by a
domino effect post-Brexit, it has, in fact acted as a vaccine, making people
aware of the true magnitude of a decision to leave the EU and less inclined to
gamble away their future for reasons often not related to Europe at all.
One
of the EuroCitizens representatives explained our demands to retain
full citizenship rights and the need for any agreement to be
ring-fenced. This elicited a very detailed response from Jaume Duch with
a re-statement of the Commission’s point of view that an
agreement on citizen’s existing rights was their first priority
(although it
takes two to tango). And that existing rights should be protected “until the end of their lives”.
The debate was streamed on youtube and can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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| Camilla Hillier-Fry of EuroCitizens (centre) with Dani Méndez of the Instituto Andaluz de Juventud, Erasmus at the University of Lancaster, and Clara Fajardo, of La Vanguardia and Café Babel, la revista europea de Sevilla |
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| John Carrivick of EuroCitizens after the event |
