 We have to start, it's past nine, seven here, where I am. Before we resume our work, I want to inform you that the electronic voting on amendments starts now, and will be open until 2 p.m. Brussels time. You can find the links to the vote on the members portal in the document Voting Link for Amendments. For details, please refer to the Practical Guide to Remote Voting for the Core, also available on the members portal. Now we start our meeting today with a very, very interesting and important debate, a debate on the European Citizens Initiative. We are glad to be joined by the Vice President of the European Parliament in charge of European democracy, Pedro Silva Preira, but also by the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Christa Schwenk, by our former President, Carl Heinz Lombards. We'll talk to us about the initiative on Minority Safe Pack, and also by Beniamino Brunati. We'll talk about the initiative on Voters Without Borders. The European Citizens Initiative can represent a remarkable tool to improve democracy in the EU, where the European Parliament cannot initiate legislation. While almost 80 citizens initiatives have been registered since 2012, only a handful of them reach the threshold of one million signatures to be seriously considered. Even fewer have had an impact on EU legislation. We must always stand by democracy, better legislation, and the principle of active subsidiarity, therefore turning our backs on the views of citizens, resundermining their trust in the European Union. If it is not properly supported, the Citizens Initiative risks failing as well, creating further frustration among citizens. These should not be only a fascinating academic debate, but become a political debate at the conference on the future of Europe. You will agree that the needs and wishes of citizens always come first, their voice through elected politicians at all levels of governance, or directly via this kind of initiative, must become a catalyst for change, reform, and ultimately new citizen-centered legislation. Our committee has been asked to bring forward a couple of examples of the Citizens Initiative process. Firstly, the Minority Safety Pack, for which I thank President Lombards for his input today. Secondly, the Voters Without Borders Initiative put forward by a young board of volunteers passionate about European citizenship. I thank Mr. Brunatti for his presence today. Dear colleagues, I now give the floor to President Krista Schwenk for a general introduction before handling the floor to President Lombards and to Mr. Brunatti. The Vice President of the European Parliament will join us later during our debate. Thank you. And President Krista Schwenk, you have the floor. Dear Mr. Raskol, a very good morning, dear members. Thank you very much for inviting me to your plenary session. It's a great pleasure and honor, and I hope that this debate together is another step for a better cooperation between our two committees. I'm particularly happy to discuss this important topic for European participatory democracy, the European Citizens Initiative. The ESC has been supportive of the, I think my collection broke for a second, the European Citizens Initiative has great potential to give European Union citizens more influence, to set the agenda at the European level and to make their voice heard on the topics they consider important. This is particularly necessary in times of crisis and efforts for recovery. If well used, the ECI is an instrument and a tool to restore trust between citizens and institutions. The instrument has other advantages. It also encourages citizens to do campaigns and networking and to have contacts with civil society organizations that act as multipliers to reach the million signatures. The ECI contributes to creating links between organizations in different countries and develops in this way a new public space that we need for citizens to feel closer to the European Union. Nine years after its start, the ECI has not yet reached its full potential. The new rules of 2020 facilitate the use of the tool by citizens and should give them more chances to succeed. I salute the fact that some organizers have taken the challenge of launching an initiative in these difficult COVID times as the case for voters without borders. So far, six initiatives have managed to collect the required number of signatures. Out of those six, five have been invited by the ESC to speak during one of our plenary sessions. We're happy to see that the European Parliament had a debate at the plenary session on the Minority Safe Pack initiative and that the Committee of the Regents is also organizing such debates. Citizens are willing to participate, but they also expect some concrete results. And the impact of a successful initiative has been so far quite limited and late. For example, it took nine years between the initiative of the Lounge Right to Water and the entry into force of the legislation resulting from it, the Drinking Water Directive. The recent reply given by the Commission on the Initiative Minority Safe Pack is also a bit disappointing in our view, not only for the organizers and those who supported them but also for those who support the ECI instrument and more generally, citizens' engagement. Despite the effort of the European Parliament and of several national and regional parliaments, the Commission decided not to propose any legislation and suggested very marginal follow-up actions. One key phase of every participatory process is its impact. It is crucial since it determines its success in the eye of the citizens. The lack of impact increases disenchantment, disengagement and frustration among citizens. It is important that our committees support this instrument to make it more known, to promote dialogue with the organizers and encourage EU institutions to take it seriously. As I was mentioning at the beginning, the EESC has always supported the ECI. We have issued several opinions on the ECI and the new regulation has taken on board many of our suggestions. We have also created in our committee an ad hoc group which will continue to monitor the developments around the tool and make any appropriate suggestions for its improvement. We will also continue our promotion of the instrument locally, notably by events in national, economic and social councils and the participation of members in the events on ECI that are organized. Last but not least, the committee will organize the 10th ECI day in June this year and we are happy to count the committee of the regions among our permanent partners. This event remains the main arena for all supporters of the ECI to take stock, discuss best practices and network. Dear members, times are changing and citizens want to participate in a more direct way in the decision making process. They must be able to take part, not only because decisions have an impact on their daily lives but also to better understand the challenge of compromise. The ECI, the lives but also the ECI is one of the options offered to them, not the only one and the conference of the future of Europe will certainly offer some avenues for discussing ways of engaging with citizens. Thank you for your attention. I am looking forward to hearing the other speakers and the members of the committee. Thank you so much, Madam President, for your presentation. Now I will give the floor to President Karl Eims Lombards for a presentation on the Initiative on Minority Safe Pack. President Lombards, you have the floor. Five minutes. Thank you. President Lombards, you have the floor right now for five minutes. My microphone was not correctly opened. Now it is open. Dear President, dear colleagues and colleagues, thank you very much for this opportunity to discuss the European citizen initiative from the point of view of a practical experience, to sign and comment. This is very important because we all, who are on the European level, even if we come from the regions and regionalities, are quickly surrounded by a European spirit, which sometimes prevents us from looking at reality. The question is, is the European citizen initiative a useful instrument for better citizen participation? Yes, it can even develop European enthusiasm. From the concrete experience with the Initiative on Minority Safe Pack I have to ask a very skeptical question. And I would also like to be very clear and not lose myself in diplomatic formulas, but to say the things I see and have experienced. I can take my conclusion. There is no reason for euphoria. President Lombards, we lost your connection. Now it works? Yes, you are back. Yes, I said that there is no reason for euphoria. Yes, here it is a delusion and even the danger that someone who once has formed a European citizen initiative in the end no longer is Europe friendly, but Europe is skeptical. It exists. There is a huge need for improvement. And now we have a good approach in the framework of the conference about the future of Europe. And I believe that this improvement of the European citizen initiative should be carried out from the outlet of the regions and from the European economic and social outlet, because we are the two institutions in the European Union that live next to the people, to the local and regional regions, on the one hand, to the civil society, on the other hand. I will do two things in a short time. I will briefly explain why the Minority Saif Park initiative is going and I will then summarize the experiences that were made there. For this initiative, the starting point is the fact that it is in the European Union, especially after the EU expansion, there are a lot of language and ethnic minorities. 8% of the EU population belongs to a national minority and 10% of the population speaks a minority or regional language. And these people live very often in border regions. This is also very specific in my case here in the east of Belgium, where the German minority in Belgium has been living and is now an autonomy statue for 50 years. This diversity of languages and auto-tone groups is an outstanding European diversity, as it was also taken into the text from the Lisbon contract. On the initiative of the FUEN, nine suggestions were made and the commission expanded, after they were passed through the process of the European citizens' initiatives. These nine suggestions are based on the protection and the support of diversity, the access to support programs that create a center for language diversity, in accordance with the structural regulations, in accordance with the Horizons 2020 regulations, the equalization of state-free, the reception of audiovisual content, the raise of rights, and the group liberation of parents. This is all very technical. I will not go into that now, because it has been very solidly worked on. We also had, in this initiative, which I, together with six other politicians from Europe, have reached at the time, deliberately avoided any questions of the institutional design of autonomies. That is also important for minorities, but that is not an EU responsibility, and that is why we left it out of the topic. What experiences have we now made? It was an unlikely hindrance over a real marathon track. The first assignment was set in 2013 and was rejected by the Baroso Commission at the time. Then we had two long-term processes before the European Court, and the European Court had to lead to ultimately eliminate the allowances of the European Court on September 24, 2019. Then we agreed with the Junker Commission on the question mark, which I have just mentioned. Then the signatures were collected. We collected 1.2 million signatures in 11 member states, and that is also a hearing that is, in my opinion, mighty. Then on October 15, 2020, a hearing in the European Parliament that was very successful, very constructive, and very contentious, and expressed great support for the initiative. The Parliament even made a resolution on December 17, 2019 on this topic, and then came the great relief, the participation of the Commission on January 14, 2021. That was really an experience. This position of the Commission is very reasonable. 24 closely written pages with a not-to-ending flow of remarks on what has already been done, and every proposal will then at the end, with the following sentence, in view of the upcoming proceedings, the Commission will hold the current proposals for sufficient and no need for further measures. That is, of course, a chaos. With other words, according to the Commission, this is what 1 million, 200,000 citizens and citizens have already set up everything perfectly, the existing measures are sufficient, there is no need for action. Today, here is neither the place, nor the time to go into detail. Just an example of the proposal, a very interesting and important proposal in the EU, to set up a center for speech diversity, is based on the evidence. That is, in Europe, there is already a center for foreign language in Strasbourg. It is worse, you can't do it. I can come to my conclusions. This initiation and accompaniment of the European National Initiative Minority Safe Pack was also a very impressive experience for me, whether or not I have been working for many decades in the European politics. That is citizen participation to get rid of. The initiative had a lot of support, in many places, even in national parliaments or regional parliaments, but it had to fight with a commission, both 13 as well as now, which obviously only has one goal in mind, to prove that they are doing everything right, that everything is already regulated, and that they have in Europe, in Brussels, the world is perfectly in control, but not really in response to summits. So citizen participation has to run in vain, and so the bureaucracy is abolished. I come to the last sentence and would like to say something positive at the end. The experience was empty, it shows at least how it has to go and how it can change. And I hope that it will succeed in the framework of our participation at the conference in Europe, to bring improvements and to introduce new ways. In any case, it was an exciting experience. Thank you very much. Thank you, President Lombards. Now I'll give the floor to Benjamin Ubrunati for a presentation on the initiative on voters without borders. You have five minutes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Freedom of movement is among Europe's biggest achievements because not only has it allowed millions of people to find better opportunities in neighboring countries, it has literally contributed to the creation of a real union of the people by bringing together Europeans through flagship programs such as Erasmus Plus. Unfortunately, this freedom of movement with so much value often comes at the cost of losing voting rights. This is particularly true in some member states that disenfranchise their citizens after they've lived abroad for a certain period, such as Denmark or Ireland. And even when voting rights for expats are preserved, mobile citizens might be required to travel long distances to vote in a consulate or, more generally, they face bureaucratic barriers that de facto exclude them from voting. It would make sense for mobile citizens to exercise the right vote where they reside. This is already a reality at the local level, but what about regional, national elections and referendums? The objective of voters without borders is to create a debate at several levels, to engage European institutions and national governments to overcome these shortcomings. Our proposals are threefold. We ask for the removal of obstacles when exercising existing rights to vote so that mobile citizens can choose if they want to vote at any level of governance in their country of residence or in that of their origin. Our third proposal is to set up a specific help desk which would inform citizens about their rights to vote and stand in elections, and this in all EU 27 languages. In several European cities like Brussels or Vienna, local elections are held to renew the representative organs of the city's district, and this still excludes mobile citizens from choosing the representatives in the Metropolitan Council. This seems like a paradox to us because mobile citizens contributing to the life of their urban and regional communities, paying taxes and enjoying public services such as schooling or public transportation should be represented and have a say in any decision involving them. Voters without borders therefore calls for the commission to push for bigger administrative units to be recognized as local authorities, thus extending the right to vote in local elections to polities such as metropolitan areas and region. This doesn't necessarily require constitutional changes in member states. According to Council Directive 9480, mobile citizens are granted the right to vote in any level nationally recognized as basic local government units which could very well apply to metropolitan areas like Brussels or Vienna. Our task force of students and young graduates has launched this ECI in September 2020 and has reached many successes in the Brussels bubble with the commission recognizing the issue of disenfranchisement in its 2020 Citizenship Report and announcing a reform of European electoral law for later this year. However, the centrality of regions and cities throughout Europe becomes evident in our effort to reach outside of the bubble and to create a pan-European debate on voting rights. Not only do regional and local authorities naturally operating closer contact with citizens, they have also proven themselves to be on the front line when it comes to welcoming migrant communities and campaigning for the equality of the rights. It's at the urban and regional levels that democratic innovation takes place the most. Indeed, important lessons of participatory democracy can be drawn from best practices in Madrid, Brussels, Paris, Milan, just to name a few. The conference on the future of Europe itself in its quest of identity could find a very relevant model when looking into local participatory experiences. Furthermore, mobile citizens are largely concentrated in European capitals and big cities and they identify with them. This is why we see regions and cities as the main supporters for our campaign. We have already received support from several authorities and we value their contribution to our cause extremely. To conclude, exclusion from regional, national elections and referendums has long caused mobile citizens to be seen as others within the very society they contribute to. Even those who are initially eager to vote become apathetic after facing repeated obstacles to exercise what is nothing but their democratic rights. Let's remember that voting is not a privilege. So restrictions to voting based on nationality should be removed and our residents should be allowed to vote in order to achieve a real inclusive Europe. On behalf of the Voters with our borders team, I invite you all to sign the ECI, to convince others to sign this ECI and to help us build momentum as regional and local leaders by teaming up with us in the lead and take the lead in the quest for universal suffrage. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Brunatti. I will now have a round around political groups. I start, I will start by giving the floor to Mr Arno Compatcher from EPP. After him, it will be Christophe Ruyon. Mr Compatcher, you have the floor. Could you please check your sound? Mr Compatcher, are you there? We're not hearing you. Can you hear me now? Now we can hear. Please go ahead. Thank you, Mr President. I will now be the member of the Italian delegation in Italy. First of all, I would like to thank all the citizens for their support. It is a very important initiative. The country is the capital of the autonomous world in Italy, which I represent. I thank the autonomy on the basis of the bilateral agreement between Italy and Austria in 1946 as an investment in the peace treaty in Paris. It has received autonomy, which is now a protective instrument for the language minority in the south. These protective instruments have allowed that conflicts have been overcome, also violence, conflicts with violence. It has been in our region for 60 years. Not only these conflicts have been overcome, but it has been satisfied. It has led to a social cohesion, to security and well-being in the country, that we have these protective instruments for the language minorities in our country. It has been established that these protective instruments are not only for the people in the south, but also for the state, also for the state of Italy. Also for this function, which the south has as a bridge between the German-speaking north and in Italy, also a more value in the sense of unity in the diversity. We see ourselves as a small Europe in Europe. We have supported these citizens' initiatives over 1.1 million signatures. We have supported them with solidarity, but also with the conviction that the European Union should recognize this theme as its own identity, in the sense of a support of the minority standards for the language ethnic minorities in Europe. In Europe, there are about 50 million people who are in this situation. This protection serves the unity in the diversity, the overcoming of conflicts, of disadvantages, and the protection catalog, which has been shown, is clearly visible from our point of view in the European Union. It is not taken into account in state competencies. It is about the access to our own language via audio-visual media, via other forms of television, internet. It is about the promotion of education and culture. It is about regional politics and participation in this regard. The Union should thus recognize this theme as its own identity in the sense of a support of the minority standards and a proof of this is the decision of the European Court, which has already been made in this decision about the access of this civil society is also the clear proof that it is very well available. In the sense of a close relationship between citizens and citizens to the Union. And should a civil society not be wiped out from the table now, that would be a catastrophe, a huge disappointment for citizens and citizens of Europe to support, to strengthen, to protect in order to actually do what Europe is doing, namely to keep the diversity in this sense. In this sense, the full support and my approach to the access of the region I would like to support this initiative with all my power and to the Organ of the Union on the Commission and the Parliament in this sense. This is also a minority standard catalogue for minority protection in Europe. Thank you Mr.Compatier. Now Christophe Ruyon, four minutes after him, Vincent Chauvet, three minutes. Mr. Ruyon, you are at the floor. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Madam President of the European Economic and Social Council, Christa Schwenge. Mr. Vice President of the European Parliament, Pedro Silva Pereira, dear colleagues. The initiative of European citizens will be done next year for the next 20 years since it has been carried by the European Convention on the Constitutional Reformation of 2002-2003. This small revolution has been a great hope so-called by the Convention. The initial enthusiasm of Europe has at least been touched since 70 European citizen initiatives launched since 2012 only four have passed the fatal threshold of a million signatures and only one, the one on the right to access to water has been followed by concrete legislative proposals. Karl-Heinz Lambert did not make us frustrated about the answer or rather the non-answer brought two weeks ago by the Commission to one of these four initiatives to cross the threshold namely the one on the citizen initiative on the right of national minorities. We must at least underline the mobilisation linked to this approach which has made the object of an arrest of the Court of Justice and which will remain a reference when the legislative proposals of the Commission linked to its application will be discussed. European citizen initiatives that I personally supported such as the one in place of a European law or the end of the taxation exemption of kerosene an initiative called kerosene have had less success. The one on the lodging had to jump to destroy due to procedural questions linked to Brexit and kerosene is only one week from the end. But I think that this arrest on the image must not be only the occasion to empty our bag on the procedural complexity of the European citizen initiative. A part of self-criticism is in my opinion. It seems to me that the Committee of the Regions has too little to play its role as a diffuser of decentralized steps. To my knowledge, the Committee has not focused on the questions of citizen initiatives three years ago in March 2008 when we adopted the life presented by Luc Vandenbrand on the reform of its procedure which finally entered into effect January 1, 2020. I thank the President for the organization of this debate which could be the starting point towards more ambition of the Committee of the Regions on the Judges. Why, for example, do not imagine the revision of our internal regulation that the Committee of the Regions can support the registered European citizen initiatives in particular to check the maintenance and maintenance in terms of subsidiarity and for the expensive case imagine an institutional stop of such or such initiative. A word about a short initiative the initiative Voters Without Borders asks for a reform of the right to vote and eligibility to the local and European elections and the extension of these rights to regional and national elections and to the referendum giving to more than 13 million mobile citizens of the Union the choice to vote in all democratic elections either in their country of residence or in their country of origin. I will officially submit to my political group socialists whose I exercise the Presidency Allow me finally one last consideration I think the tree of the initiative European citizen must not hide the forest of opportunities that we have the conference on the future of Europe let's be more ambitious for the participative European democracy In the framework of this conference the Committee of the Regions must be the key of the local and regional and therefore of the citizenship proximity we must convince the institutions and the states to develop a continuous dialogue model and structure with the citizens by the intermedia of at least 100,000 regional who could thus contribute to improve the decision process of the European Union and reconnect Europe with its citizens such a permanent dialogue mechanism will complete in my opinion the citizen initiative of 20 years ago to strengthen the legitimacy of the Union by more participation and taking into account the expectations of 447 million Europeans Thank you Mr President Thank you now Mr Chouvet 3 minutes and after him Mr Raymond Kovach Mr Chouvet you have the floor for 3 minutes Hello everyone and thank you for giving me the floor I am very happy to intervene as a member of the Renew Committee of the Regions but also as initiator of the European citizenship initiative since I posted the day of the entry in vigour of the European citizenship initiative in 2012 with a group of students I was a student at the time a single communication tariff act which was therefore to remove the costs of ignorance in the European Union and it was the first initiative to register under the number 00002 and there was finally a success in the sense where the parliament accelerated its work and finally most of the costs of telephonic ignorance today in the European Union are only old memories but I share what was said by President Lambert and President Ruyon about the complexities President Lambert talked about a marathon in 2012 we were even in the unbreakable obstacle with the obligation to build its own computer system of recognition of signatures and different legislation on the United States which gave a criminal responsibility on the right to protect data and I remember that with my co-initiators we had experienced difficult moments of knowing how we were going to pursue our career in the yellows Anyway, today we are half a success or half a failure in almost 10 years less than 8 initiatives a year are deposited less than 1 a year a success and in the calendar I quote this time the initiative which was successful and President Lambert 4 years between the depot of the initiative which we can find on the site of the European citizen initiative of the Commission in our society, now in 2012 it is even more true with social networks with the temporality the moving actuality of our society which is bound by a certain crisis the need to have participative mechanisms which is a temporality compatible with political action and as my colleagues of the European Economic and Social Committee I really want to say that they helped us a lot with President Henri Malos at the launch of initiatives and I am very happy that 10 years after the European Economic and Social Committee is always at the tip to support the civil society which launches these initiatives I salute the proposal of President Ruyon also to involve more strongly the Committee of the Regions and the local authorities in this process and the reflection on a real citizen initiative for the future of Europe which will open soon thank you now I give the floor to Mr. Raymond Kovacs 2 and a half minutes and then Kovacs Joseph Kovacs 2 minutes thank you good afternoon colleagues I am very happy that we have come to the beginning of the civil society as you know the regional trust is working to bring the EU closer to the EU the regional and local representatives meet the citizens every day and they work to strengthen the EU and to eliminate the member states of the EU since 2012 this is the aim of the European civil society an opportunity for the EU to be able to support the future of the EU Mr. Lernocur unfortunately I have to say that the European civil society can not forget the success stories of the EU the European civil society is simple and we have to make it easier 76 civil society and only 6 have succeeded in the need to meet the needs the European civil society has given only 2 options a majority 2 weeks the European civil society has also decided that the minority safe pack will not start the national minorities in the defense the minority safe pack will start the UN 50 million population the goal is the national minorities of the EU and the local regions of the EU to meet the needs of the EU with the decision of the EU to work for the minority the majority supports the EU the European Parliament also supports the national and regional regions calls for more than 1 million EU of the EU Mr. Lernocur in the days of a second European start Thank you, sir. You have to conclude. Thank you. We are short of time. Thank you. Now, I'll give the floor to Mr. Josef Cobor, after him. Thank you, sir. You have to conclude. Thank you. We are short of time. Thank you. Now, I'll give the floor to Mr. Josef Cobor, after him. Thank you. Now, I'll give the floor to Mr. Josef Cobor, after him. Mr. Cobor, you have the floor for two minutes. Dear President, dear colleagues, the European Citizens Initiative is an exemplary step to take Europe closer to its people and align with the conference of the future of Europe ambition. The European Alliance care about participatory democracy in Europe as demonstrated by the recent opinion with the name permanent dialogue with citizens. We deeply regret that the recent European Commission's decision not to take any new policy or legislative actions on the Minority Safe Pack Initiative that has relevance for 50 million Europeans who belong to linguistic minorities. This decision also ignores the voice of the European Parliament. As European Alliance, we stand behind protection of the youth's cultural heritage and diversity. United in diversity should apply not only the member states but also to its people across different cultures and languages. This initiative is not about identity politics, not about nationalism, which many of us are so afraid of. Contrary, it is about the well-being and European self-awareness of European citizens. The European Union has an obligation to protect diversity as it is in the European Court decision of 2017. The European Commission decision not to act sends the wrong message to the EU citizens and harms trust in the Commission. It puts in the question the future of the new initiatives. For instance, the coalition policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures, which just now met the requirements. Please take care on this initiative. How can the European Parliament, the EST and the Court please be aware of time? Thank you. Thank you and I give the floor to burn Voss two minutes. Mr. Voss, if you're not there. I believe that in the European Parliament, the topic shows what is burning, what people are moving. If we remember the initiative, what is public good, then it makes it clear that something can be moved. It is not enough, but something can be moved. We should not only put our heads in the sand and that also shows the new initiatives such as the climate control. I myself come from a region where over a hundred years ago... We are in difficult place to have Mr. Voss. Yes? Hello? I understand. Please continue. Thank you very much. I hope I understand. I myself come from a region where over a hundred years ago, 1920, through a democratic agreement, a new border between Germany and Denmark was drawn. But the decades after that showed how good and how successful it was for the regions when a smart minority policy was made. And from there we have all the parties in parliament who support the initiative as well as the government of the country. In Europe, 50 million people live in regions as a minority in regions. More and more languages are spoken. Please conclude your remarks. Time. Thank you. Thank you. Please conclude your remarks. Time. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Voss. Now we have a problem. For the sake of our next panel and the presence of Commissioner Gabriel, we won't be able to have now the debate among members about this issue. So we put that debate on hold and we'll move to the president of the European Parliament, Pedro Silva Pereira. You have five minutes. Pedro Silva Pereira, five minutes. Pedro Silva Pereira, five minutes. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I am now going to be seen and heard. I would like to first of all thank you for the invitation to be interviewed in this session. I would also like to greet my good friend and vice-president Paz Cordero on this occasion. I had the pleasure of seeing the program of these days of work. It is a proof of the vitality of the Committee of Regions and its ability to develop regional and local actors. I would also like to welcome the President of the Committee on Economic and Political Affairs, and in a very special way, the promoters of the two European citizenship initiatives, which were presented today, Minority Safe Pack and Voters Without Borders. As everyone knows, the figure of the European initiative, which I am responsible for in the European Parliament, is an initiative, a figure that was created in the Lisbon Treaty of 2007. It is a case to say that I can talk about it, because it was there. It is a rare case in which it happens. In fact, it was in the Portuguese presidency. I was in the government at that time. I was in the European Council that closed the negotiations for the Lisbon Treaty. The idea of the European citizenship initiative was conceived as a way of providing a participation of citizens, perhaps one of the first instruments of a transnational participatory democracy. Of course, it was about allowing citizens to request, propose and initiate initiatives in terms of community competence, and that, naturally, there were no futile initiatives or violators of the union's values. As you know, there is a controversy about the success of this mechanism. In fact, right from 2015, the initiative actually began to take shape in 2012, the European Parliament immediately began to demand perfections in the system, in order to simplify the process. And the truth is that over the years, there were 76 registered initiatives and only six were able to overcome the obstacles and gather the number of necessary signatures to be considered. The reform that we introduced, which we approved in 2018, and which came into effect in 2020 in this figure, allows, in fact, on the one hand, to support the initiatives' promoters, with more information, legal support and a collaborative platform that allows, in fact, to support the development of these processes, in second place, to simplify the collection of signatures, and, in third place, to give more visibility to these processes. Now, the European Parliament utilizes the Wearing of the Initiatives, a debate in the Parliament, and can even prove a resolution. It is always to make the balance of these changes in the European Initiative regime, but they all go in the sense of evaluating this instrument of participation of the citizens. It is clear that we cannot evaluate the initiative of the citizens in Europe only by the amount of initiatives. In fact, we should evaluate them by the impact that they had in the European legislative procedures. And then, in fact, the European Parliament shares the disappointment that has already been manifested along this session by some, as well as the fact that the European Commission does not follow some of the initiatives, or at least some of the initiatives, because this, of course, will continue to happen, will create a disappointment as to this participation mechanism. I would like to highlight that, despite the crisis we are facing, democracy is not suspended, democratic institutions work, the European Parliament keeps itself entirely operational, and the participation of the citizens must be valued. I believe that even if we are facing an opportunity of a great encounter between the European project and the citizens' expectations, with a common policy, as a common policy against the pandemic, of solidarity recovery in relation to the crisis, but also with a more democratic Europe. I believe that the role of the European Parliament and the initiative of the citizens and also the conference for the future of Europe can be great contributions to this. This week we had news, and with this term, Mr. President, we had news that the Portuguese presidency was able to begin to develop in the Council the process for the conference for the future of Europe. This is a very important step in the good direction and to value our democracy, and in all this process, the Committee of Regions certainly has a very important role. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you, Mr. President. Now I will give the floor to President Spain for two minutes if she wants to conclude. Two minutes. Thank you very much. I'm very happy that I had the occasion to listen to the members of the Corps and to the presentation of the two initiatives of the Minority Safe Pack and Voters Without Borders. I do, however, regret that I did not have a chance to listen to the interventions from the floor, particularly to my compatriot, Mr. Schausberger. I think the entire discussion showed that engaging citizens potentially helped to develop policies that are adapted to their needs that are better accepted and that's better implemented. This is particularly important when there are reforms going on for recovery and future resilience. I hope that despite the difficulties generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the new and simplified rules will encourage citizens to use these instruments and give them more chances to succeed. What I can assure you is that the ESC at the European level and its members in their respective countries will continue promoting the ECI, raising awareness on it so that the ECI is more known by citizens and therefore more used. I hope that we can continue to support initiatives by cooperating between our two committees and by having regional and local authorities cooperating with organized civil society in the member states. We need to put people at the heart of European policies, be it through civil society organization that are represented in our committee or directly through instruments like the ECI. We want to keep citizens on board and stimulate their engagement in a meaningful way, as the EU should be as close as possible to its people and deserve their trust. I wish you a good continuation of your meeting. All the best. Bye-bye.