Promoting Europe from the bottom up: the main proposal of Europe's youth

Young people continue to lead the changes in the Europe of the future. This time the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement met in Albacete, in the Ruidera Lagoons, with the aim of discussing the future of the Conference on the future of Europe and proposing which aspects should be included.

The young people have been critical of the aspects that work worst in the Movement and, with the aim of eradicating them, have made a series of proposals through which they intend to achieve the main objective of the Conference: to listen to the citizens and offer them the possibility of their ideas reaching the European institutions and being translated into real measures. 

According to the members of the European Movement, the main problems that the Conference is currently facing are related to the lack of communication and European culture in the country, together with the lack of space dedicated to Europe and its institutions in the media. Ignorance, they stress, is a problem that makes it even more difficult to reach out to young people so that they can be part of the proposals.

In addition, the lack of understanding between the institutions, together with the lack of citizen representation, would be hindering the main task of the Conference. These obstacles also include the fact that the panels of citizen representation are being chosen at random, which hampers the processes of representation of European citizenship.

However, members of the European Movement are hopeful and optimistic. They emphasise that it is the young people themselves who are the driving force behind the Conference on the Future of Europe. Furthermore, this new meeting coincides with the tripartite coalition approved in Germany, which places the European issue as a priority. In this line, the German country is betting on the suppression of unanimity and the commitment to support qualified majorities, a federalist measure that the Movement applauds.

For the president of the Spanish federal council of the European Movement, Francisco Aldecoa, both the German pact and the new meeting of the Movement come at an "extremely opportune" moment, since the European Union is "betting on the European federation".

Thus, the Movement stresses its enthusiasm for trying to defend a Europe with greater representative democracy, greater horizontality and progress on a federal level.

In this way, during the meeting, the young people have made a declaration with some thirty concrete proposals on how the future of the European Union should be, defending, with them, a relaunching of the European Union towards the European institutions. In the declaration, they advocate for health measures to cover mental health issues and for the implementation of social measures to continue the fight for gender equality.

They also advocate "the inclusion of the European Pillar of Social Rights in the EU Treaties" and the "establishment of a more humane Common Migration and Asylum Policy to prevent migratory emergencies such as the current ones, as well as the promotion of a "digital transition" in which no one is excluded.

Together with this, as a generation that has been able to enjoy the Erasmus programmes, they point out that the economic funds allocated to the programme should be increased, as well as the creation of a subject of "European citizenship" in order to "increase knowledge of the European Union, its values and rights". In this line, the fight against climate change has been another of the main themes of the debates, discussions that leave the door open to the reform of the treaties due to the fact that "there are a series of challenges in the European Union that have to be faced jointly and that may require the reform of these", according to an official communiqué. 

In this way, the young people continue to support the creation of a Europe that is more democratic and inclusive, where their proposals are heard and where they finally feel part of a political and social project in which the real protagonists are European citizens.

Here is the full statement from Ruidera:

RELAUNCHING EUROPE FROM THE BOTTOM UP

DECLARATION OF RUIDERA 

Gathered in Ruidera (Albacete) the young people of the main Europeanist associations of the Spanish young civil society:

Equipo Europa, Erasmus Student Network España (ESN España), Jóvenes Europeistas y Federalistas de España (JEF España), Juventud Europeos de Canarias (JuveuCan), Consejo Canario del Movimiento Europeo, Consejo Aragonés del Movimiento Europeo, Consejo Catalán del Movimiento Europeo (CCME), Consejo Andaluz del Movimiento Europeo, Consejo Castellano Manchego del Movimiento Europeo, Jóvenes del Consejo Federal Español del Movimiento Europeo (J-CFEME), and Talento para el Futuro; have continued the debates on the Conference on the Future of Europe, initiated at the first meeting in Mollina, which, we continue to reaffirm, is an unprecedented exercise in dialogue in which, for the first time, European institutions, civil society and citizens (with a strong participation of young people) have debated on the present and future of the European Union.

We agree that: 

1.    The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) is an unprecedented opportunity for the European Union.

2.    The Conference has a number of limitations since its convening. Among them, the representation and role of organised civil society and citizens, with special attention to the representation of young people, whose representation in the CoFoE Plenary is 12% compared to the 25% that represent the demographic weight of the citizenship of the Union. 

3.    The Conference is not having the expected impact, either in the media or among the European population.

They have worked on the following thematic areas of the Conference on the Future of Europe;

1. Strengthening the State of Rights, Values and Democracy and Rights and Democracy

2.    A pro-people economy 

3.    A Just Transition in the Fight against Climate Change

4.    Towards a European Health Union

5.    The digital transformation of the European Union

6.    European Migration and Asylum, a Community Aspect

7.    A stronger European Union in the world

8.    Education, culture, sport and youth

All the young representatives of the various associations present agreed that the following proposals should be taken forward for discussion at the Conference on the Future of Europe: 

Strengthening the Rule of Law, Values and Rights and Democracy

1. Creating and investing in European Union media, in order to raise awareness of what the EU does both externally and internally, thereby improving the Union's communication in all official EU languages;

2. Strengthening the election system for the Presidency of the European Commission through the Spitzenkandidat mechanism. Proposing the limitation of the election of the Presidency of the European Commission to MEPs only and giving priority, without in any case limiting it, to the head of the list of the European Parties,

3.    Institutionalise the dialogue between representative democracy and participatory democracy by enabling the creation of a cross-cutting network of European organised civil society associations, sharing best practices and giving continuity to the spirit of the Hague Congress of 1948;

4.    Granting greater powers to the Committee of the Regions, especially taking into account those European regions that already have their own legislative capacity.

5.    Creation of a common Schengen passport for European citizens, replicating the existing Schengen visa for foreigners.

An economy for people

1. Include the European Pillar of Social Rights within the European Treaties, including fundamental aspects such as: gender equality; internship pay; labour rights, minimum professional wage, mental health, etc., ;

2.    Harmonise working conditions at European level in order to establish a common set of minimum standards to correct the differences between member states. This will also have to take into account rural areas;

3.    Creation of a special fund to increase youth employment and mobility between the different Member States;

A Just Transition in the fight against climate change

1. Promoting energy self-consumption in the Member States, thereby strengthening the European Union's energy autonomy;

2.    2. To give priority to the use of public transport by rail, through the creation of incentives such as common European transport vouchers;

3.    Encourage local consumption through the implementation of the Farm to Fork Strategy, by means of common, clear and distinguishable labelling that informs consumers about the origin and environmental impact of products; 

4.    Strengthen and expand the European Joint Research Centre (JRC). 

5.    Fulfil the objectives set by the European Commission in the Green Pact, achieving the elimination of the use and consumption of fossil fuels before the year 2050;

6.    Ensure a just transition, leaving no one behind.

Towards a European Health Union

1. Grant shared competence to the European Union in health matters, and exclusive competence in the case of pandemics and epidemics, learning from the lessons of Covid-19;

2. Reform the European ID card, with the aim of transforming it into a "card holder", including the European Health Insurance Card;

3.    Include mental health as part of the European Health Union;

4.    Strengthen intra-European mobility to share practice and treatment on rare diseases and specific treatments, both at health and family level.

The digital transformation of the European Union

1. Creation of information and learning platforms for the digitalisation of both the younger and older generations in order to reduce the current digital divide;

2.    Combating disinformation in an effective and communitarian way from the European institutions. Special emphasis on encouraging a critical spirit in the young population, by pooling existing data verification systems;

3.    Use digitalisation to combat depopulation in rural areas in order to fix the young population in the territory and diversify the economic and productive sector;

Migration and European Asylum, a Community issue

1. Transfer to the European Union competences in the field of migration and asylum;

2. Respect for human rights in Migration and Asylum Policy, promoting the unblocking of the Dublin III Agreements;

3.    Addressing the integration of migrants from a humanitarian perspective and seeking compliance with the "Communications on combating xenophobia".

4.    Make access to the EU Blue Card more flexible for all qualifications, which can be applied for at EU and US embassies in third countries;

5.    Call for greater proactivity on the part of the European institutions and its Member States, recalling the obligation to provide relief, and adopting exceptional measures to tackle the maritime migratory humanitarian emergency;

A stronger European Union in the world

1. Enable qualified majority (or super-qualified majority) decision making mechanism instead of unanimity;

2.    Updating the common strategy in order to give more meaning to the development of the EU's strategic autonomy in the face of new challenges. 

3.    More specific perspectives and policies on the Southern Neighbourhood, taking into account the characteristics of each country.

4.    Creation of a European Emergency Unit to provide the European Union with military and civilian resources for immediate response to emergencies, whether in the territory of the European Union or in third states that request it.

5.    Strengthen the role of the High Representative for the Foreign Policy of the European Union.

Education, culture, sport and youth

1.    Education at both higher (university and vocational training) and lower levels should be a competence of the European Union, allowing for the establishment of standards in academic curricula and including a subject of "European citizenship";

2. To strengthen the Erasmus+ programme financially and technically, allowing a greater number of young people to access the programme, including mobility within employment, professionals, etc.;

3. Generate a common European culture through a multiculturalist approach including the declaration of 9 May, Europe Day, as a public holiday, as well as generating a commensality, festivities, etc.

4.    Promote equivalents such as the European Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe at the Community level. 

The Ruidera Lagoons, Albacete. 28 November 2021