 The consolidation of the achievements of what the European Union is today and how much we can at least keep what we have up to now. We all feel threats from different level, economic, socials, political. So I think that our panelists and the rest of the room will try to contribute to this point. We feel, and a starting point already discussed, of course, this morning in the session, but also during the breaks, is that we feel that Europe is actually an exercise given for granted. And therefore this given for granted exercise does not need, apparently, because it's there, the same level of commitment and strength and devotion that it was needed at the beginning. More than this, of course, there is a clear attack on the EU projects or the process itself. The EU, like democracy, is not an achievement, it's a process where we build step by step the community we want to have. The process, however, is set by what we call the founding fathers, an integrated union, a never-closer union. And this is actually this kind of trend of process which is now at stake. So I think the discussion very much is, do we have another process to propose? And what does this new process would imply as for the achievements and the rights and the position of the European Union today that we have achieved already? There are, of course, threats and we are here to discuss with our speakers and with you how to defend and preserve in particular and we have the European Agency and we have the European Commission and our colleagues, our European citizens' rights. Actually the point is, all of us, and I know that because I know many people in this room, we are trying to work hard every day in our own communities, how to make the success not to avoid that this success, which is evidently the European Union, becomes a nightmare. So how to preserve Europe from what I would say the syndrome of the spoiled child that has received everything from his fathers, from his parents and he doesn't know what the sacrifice means and he doesn't know what it means, the process and a long life of commitment and therefore in a minute or in a year can destroy all the commitments of the parents. And often I know maybe it's not very appropriate but I feel that in many cases we can feel this syndrome of the spoiled child in the Europe of today that forgets about where we are coming from and this is why I think that it's very important that the program Europe for citizens and also in particular this event works a lot around the question of the memory. Once again it's also very complicated to transmit in its full content the memory of Europe and how to of course all history is difficult to transmit but somehow it is extremely important by avoiding this spoiled concept that Europe is there with all its achievement and it will be there forever or at least the achievements will be there forever. It's very important to maintain these memories. The other point is I would like to make is that referring to this session I would like to refresh our mind and mention the very good work that we did in 2013, many people in this room with the European year for citizens and I thought that maybe in this occasion we should mention that a lot has been done during this year to share with the European citizens duties and rights of the citizens and some of the work that we have done has been also transmitted to our organization and also in some of the activities of the European Commission. So the speakers today will be addressing together with you and I'm sure they will have a very interactive and open manner to do so. How to promote this right enforcement, ensuring the informants of EU citizens' rights. How to use information and communication campaigns about the EU citizens' rights and EU policies. How to work on human rights education and anti-discrimination strategies which are at the very basis of our living together. I think that my wish is that, as I said also during the break to some of you, the best thing will be that Europe should not justify itself, the European Union, because when you start to justify yourself for what you are it's already too far. I mean the benefit of the European Union should be self-evidence. So how to transmit this self-evidence and how not to speak about Europe but to be about Europe. Because I think that this is also something which should be raised here. This kind of process is, as I said, and this is something that we will discuss this afternoon, how to avoid the process of justification. Because it should come natural that this is a fantastic instrument in a continent that's per se is not a peaceful one. I would leave it this way and give it the floor to our panelists this afternoon to inspire us, inform us about what we can do more in our daily life. And as I said, let's try to understand how we can be Europe and not only to talk about it. So my wish and often I give an answer to this kind of question by the recipe and the solution is actually often in three points, which is action, action and action. So let's act to preserve and to maintain our big projects. So I would like to give the floor. We heard you already today, we are very pleased that you can stay for this afternoon to Francesco Fonseca Murillo, Deputy Director General, Justice and Consumers of the European Commission. Francesco, you have the floor. Thank you, thank you Antonella for the presentation. We were able to have a good discussion with the participants. Let me begin with a statement. I know that I am a dinosaur, but a technological dinosaur, but I couldn't imagine that it was at this point. No. Do you hear me? Yes. Okay. So let me begin with an statement. An statement concerning how to strengthen the union citizens rights. My statement is that we don't really need to strengthen. The union citizens rights are there. The citizens has given to us, to the European, a real value for the movement of persons, consular protection, participation in local and European Parliament elections, etc., etc. But, but, I would like to clearly say, Mr. Mignic, here we are not in a kind of cannibal democracy. I think that the first answer is to how to protect European citizens is to say that we protect on the temptations on cannibal democracy. Probably on a procedural point of view, probably in a kind of confused Brazil's approach. You know, in Brazil we will say that you propose to grow a horse and at the end of the negotiation you are growing a duck knee. But I mean, it's our life we need to live with that. So, I would like in my first intervention, just to state three points. Firstly, I will set out some of our recent achievements and developments in the European Union, because it's important to know what are the last developments. Secondly, I will briefly outline what European citizens told us, the European Commission, about their experience and about their expectations when moving within the European Union and what they want to participate in European Union, democratic life. And, finally, I will offer you my thoughts for how they might be strengthened and then join you in the discussion. Firstly, I would like to start with the Commission's achievements, recent Commission's achievements. First, last year we have adopted the directive on consular protection on the basis of the Commission, of course. These new directives will be the first hallow instrument that we will have in 2018 in order to give a concrete set of obligations from the consular authorities to benefit us when we are abroad, abroad-European Union, of course. Secondly, very important, we have adopted the regulation on free circulation of public documents and this regulation on free circulation will significantly reduce burdens for citizens moving in another country. Let me finish concerning this kind of broad presentation with a very important aspect. In the criminal law, we are also protesting our citizens and we have adopted four on the five directives concerning the procedural rights. We have all the rights, when we are abroad our country, to have translation in a criminal course for free, of course. We have the right to have the access to a lawyer. We have, that is the first and the second, the third and the fourth, we have recently developed a common European set of rules about the presumption of innocence in principle and about the special rights on the children's participating or being in any criminal course. That is also protesting European citizens. So what is my point? My point is that the European citizens' rights, they are a living animal and we are developing all the time in our real life, in our common work in Brazil. But secondly, I would like to share with you some of the outcomes of the two last Eurovalometer surveys, one on the European Union Citizenship and a second one specifically on electoral rights. Because these two Eurovalometers give us a good indication on how you, how us the citizens, we are perceiving this protesting role. We have also completed these Eurovalometers as many of you, you will participate with a detailed public consultation on European Union Citizenship last year in 2015. Our aim with all these Eurovalometers, public consultation, etc., was to gather direct feedback from citizens and organizations that represent the citizens to learn what they need from us to do things better and focus on the issues that European Union Citizens tell us matter to them. We asked them, European Union Citizens, for their opinions on what would help them enjoy the European Union Citizenship fully and receive concrete benefits from it. I will summarize now briefly what we have learned. The first lesson on the first data, clear data, is that there is significant progress has been made regarding awareness of European Union Citizenship. In particular, almost all know are familiar with the term Citizenship. 87% European Citizens know what that means Citizenship. Most of them, 73% understand the concrete scope of the Citizens and more than a half, 52% are comfortable with this status of European Citizenship. So that is a significant progress in relationship with the previous Eurovalometers in the last 10 years. Looking at the rights themselves, let's take free movement as an example of a concrete benefit derived from European Union Citizenship. It provides European Union Citizens with tangible opportunities to travel, study, do business, work, and live, even die. I have a testament in other European Union countries. Free movement is the right that European Citizens share the most. Seven out of ten Europeans consider that free movements bring economic benefits to their own country. Four in five respondents to our public consultation European Union Citizens were of the opinion that moving to another European Union country brings with it a clear cultural diversity and enrichment of them as citizens. More respondents to our consultation, around 60%, had also enjoyed the free movement rights having lived for at least three months in another European Union country. However, there are still one in three respondents, only 36%, who live or have lived in another European Union country who say they experience difficulties, one third, experience difficulties. In their day-to-day lives, we regard to the exercise of the rights as European Union Citizens after having moved to another country. And surprisingly, among the main problems being reported were the lengthy or unclear administrative procedures to facilitate our day-to-day life. Four out of ten respondents to our public consultation said they had experienced difficulties in getting access to private services, for example, banks or utilities, when exercising the right to free movements. What that means? That means that we have a march to do better here. Citizens still flag a lack of sufficient information on their rights as non-nationals when they move to another country as well as a lack of awareness. It would be a paradox that the citizens we are more informed of our rights in a third country than into Europe. That means we need to have to enhance this perception of citizens. The vast majority, 87%, ask for specific information on an assistance with their individual needs and questions as newcomers to help them settle down after moving in another European Union country. We also note significant variance between the rights. Though the right of free movement remains the most known and best understood, awareness of other rights, like the consular protection, is less well developed. While seven of ten Europeans, 72%, know that when outside the European Union they have the right to seek help from an embassy of another European Union country, of course when their own country does not have one, our Eurovalometer shows that three of four Europeans do not have a clear understanding of what the right to consular protection consists of. Europeans expect to be protected when in need of assistance abroad but need to know better when and how they and their family members can be protected. We will have to further inform citizens about how and when they can benefit from the new European Union rules on consular protection will become national law by May 2018. We are also considering further action to strengthen this right, which is so important in case of an emergency abroad. Reflection on what we could do better invites us to consider what we need to do overall to strengthen our citizens' rights. This is not just about making sure that existing free movement and consular protection rules are obeyed, even if it is very important. It is also about the final area of citizens' rights. I mean a real citizens' democratic participation. Fostering democratic participation is vital to the Union and to our societies. As President Juncker said in this political guidelines, in 2019 the European, and I quote, the European electoral campaign will be a truly pan-European campaign. And everyone will know it before they go to the ballot box. Democracy is also European. It is continental, and by becoming more democratic, Europe in no way diminishes the importance of its states, of its nation, and on our own nationality. As stressed in our report on the 2014 European Parliament elections, we need to redouble our efforts and boost citizens' participation in European elections. It is about the legitimacy of the decision making. We need to reach out to young people in particular, because young people is the sector of our society that they are more indifferent and less attracted to participate in the European elections. To achieve this, citizens told us that they would like to have better information on what Union policies bring to citizens' daily lives. We need to reserve the ascension trend, which follows the general trend by the way of declining participation in all elections at all levels. Citizens often consider European Union politics to be too distant to concern them. Sometimes European Union topics are reduced to often unrelated national political issues. I suppose that in all the 28 member states, we are perfectly aware that when we discuss in the campaign for the European Parliament, we discuss all national questions. And by the way, that is very important. For citizens to become more involved in the democratic life of the European Union, we need to help them see what is at stake. Only this way will we all become the truly political animals than Aristotle claim is our natural state. It is what citizens told us that the turnout at European elections would be higher if the relevance of European Union policies for citizens' daily lives were better explained. 80% of the answers. To this end, citizens also considered that more information on the programs and the objectives of the lead candidates for the function of the presidency would come in handy. Europeans told us also that they need to be heard better. Almost 9 out of 10 respondents to our consultation thought that European Union should give a stronger voice to citizens, especially young people in democratic decision making. Finally, we also saw that it is very important to make it practically easier for citizens to participate in European and local elections. Around 8 out of 10 mobile European citizens would value practices which would make it easier for them to vote, such as individual letters, outlining how to register and vote, and automatic registration on the electoral role for municipal elections. We should therefore promote the good practices that already exist in some European countries and look at ways of facilitating participation and doing away with practical problems that hinder people from voting. Please, help yourselves to the publications we published in March and copies of which we brought today. They are outside the room. They show in more detail what citizens told us on this and other important aspects of their European Union rights. This is also an area where the project funded by the European for Citizens program contributes with ideas and suggestions. The above mentioned policy areas will be part of our European Union citizens' report, which will come out this year. The commission is committed through policy and through funding to support, uphold and strengthen the Union citizens' rights. We do not want to only preserve our achievements, but to take concrete steps towards making those benefits a reality for Europeans on the ground. This is what European citizens are asking for. I would like to conclude with the words of President Juncker in his political guidelines. Either we succeed in bringing European citizens closer to Europe, or we fail. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would like, in accordance with my colleagues over there, and I hope with Asia, maybe to give the floor to the audience for a couple of questions and comments on Francisco's speech presentation. Yes, can you introduce yourself? Is there a mic in the room? So maybe you can come and use here. My name is Aksana Chilshva. I'm a Russian journalist and a political refugee in Finland. And my question is to you. Well, actually, just an example now, I'm a holder of a Finnish Aliens passport, which actually protects me and gives me a lot of possibilities only to participate politically in life in Finland, in Finland by voting, not just voting at municipal elections, but actually I have the right to present my candidature if I want to run for elections. Being a non-citizen of Finland. My question is, what are you going to do with regard to non-citizens of the Baltic states? Okay, I take another couple of... Maybe another one, yes? Ah, we found the microphone. Hello, my name is Java Yasudita. I'm from Novi Hormones organization. We are beneficiaries from Program Europe for Citizens. And the project is called Prisoners, Present Discussion and Contribution to Future European Union. During the project, we have encountered many more problems that we expected. We have saw panel systems and differences in imprisonment institutions and regulations and also differences in applying NGOs' knowledge in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Lithuania. For example, I would like to ask Mr. Francisco, because you mentioned this team in your speech, how do you think, what is the main way to have some common restrictions and common recommendations actually being applied to European Union panel system? For example, we have Istanbul... Yes, yes, yes. We have Istanbul protocol, but if you know, this document is for employees, let's say it's recommendations how to work with prison inmates and not to violate their human rights. But still, for example, in Lithuania and in other countries, we have employees working in prison who haven't heard about such protocols, such documents. So we're looking forward for future projects and future possibilities to have impact in this system or penalty system, ministries of justice and so on and so forth. And I would like to ask you, maybe you have any information on any ideas how to ensure smooth implementing of such recommendations as Istanbul protocol. Thank you. Thank you. Another one maybe, and then, yes. Of course, everyone keeps short, but I'll give the floor to more many people. Thank you. I will be brief. Mikos Barabas from European House Hungary. Two comments. One is on the citizens' rights in general. It might sound strange, but I would like to underline also the other side of the matter, namely responsibility, which is the other side of the same coin. In my opinion, the citizens' rights are also... are more appreciated if the other side of the matter, namely responsibilities, also mentioned. My other comment is, and I'm pleased to see your reference to the upcoming or to the next European Parliamentary elections. The current system goes against the European project in terms of identification of members of European Parliament. So I would like to see mechanisms through which, for instance, a European list could be introduced in 2019, when not only the national political considerations are playing a decisive role in identifying those who are sitting in the European Parliament and pretend to act for the promotion of the European project. Thank you. So we give back the microphone to Mr. Francesca Morillo, who will be there till the end of the day. I am enough, enough, all to be an old-fashioned federalist. But don't ask me why the European Union is not doing things where the European Union has not the competence to do it. So I would be more than happy to do that. For us, independently, if you are Russian, a patriot, Chinese or Finnish, if the Finnish legislations give you the right to participate in elections, you are welcome at the European level, because we can like it or not. But the decision who can participate is made according to the national laws. Secondly, and that is so clear that you can add, you are interested, you can go to the electoral campaign in Denmark in 1993 to say yes in the second referendum to Maastricht to understand the sensitivity of the issues is in Denmark because it is more or less closer from Baltic countries. So secondly, concerning the non-citizens in the Baltic states, I can say that 10 years ago, we correct the most flagrant discrimination. But we are talking on democratic constitutions of these countries and there is some conditions that correct me if I am wrong. The European Human Rights Initiative has blessed on how to accept to the Latvian, Lithuanian or Estonian nationality. We can be happy or not. But we are, as a guardian of the treaties, we are obliged to control the conditions to access to the nationality. They are not discriminatory in function of your minority etc. situation. And we are doing, we are monitoring the situation in order to ensure that there is not a discretion of power to say yes or not. By the way, if I remember, there is a case before the European Court of Human Rights concerning the leader of one of the racial minority parties in the Baltic country that he was refused the nationality three years ago. So we need to wait for the decision of the court of staff at my point. But concerning the discrimination we have corrected without need to go to an infringement procedure. That is not very exciting, very sexy, but it is the reality. So concerning the question of the penal system, again we are the treaty, our constitution, our European constitution gives us the possibility to approximate national legislation, even not to harmonize to approximate it. So we are doing, in terms of procedural criminal law, we are dealing with all the trans-border questions. We are assuring that if you have, you commit a crime here in Barcelona tomorrow and you go to your country, the European arrest warrant follows you. We are assuring that they are procedural warranties for every in the process. You are in a criminal case in Spain, you have the right to a translation because the right to defence, et cetera, et cetera. But we can't change the substantive national rules in the matter. And we can't change the rules of prisons. We are acting on prisons via mechanisms of so-low, soft-low. And we are acting how? We are acting now, trying to find money and to offer money in order to avoid the overcrowding prisons because there is an integral part of the fight against jihadism and against Islamic radicalization. And we have money, we are going to use, but we can change the prison conditions in the bracket's normal situation because there is not in the treaties. And concerning your question, you are talking, if I can, on the difference between the democracy, legitimacy, and the European Parliament is so democratic, so legitimate that any national parliament has all the power that any national parliament we are talking a different question, talking on the accountability. You are accountable, accountable before whom? And it's true that the system of national list made that a normal MEP is far, far, far away from the citizens than any national parliamentarian. That is why it is your role, that is my answer, that is your role to oblige us to change that. There is a very good idea and we have time between now and 2019, and Marielle Mboulanger is working on that, but she can now explain you all our secrets. No, it's not only that this will be mandatory that when you vote for the EPP list in Denmark, you know that voting for this list, you are voting for Mrs. X, like future President of the Commission, we need to do that obligatory, but it's also the question to establish or not a kind of European circumscription. And that is not a theory in the political program or the second political force of European Parliament, at European level, the Socialist, in the elections, it was the idea to have seven one parliamentarians elected by national list and fifty elected, like in the German system, in a common European ballot. And of course, the candidate to be President of the Commission will be there in these fifty candidates. Fifty EPPs, three Socialists, and the first one will be the candidate to be President of the Commission. But please, we must, you help us, because we must to convince and he would be very happy if we would have that for the elections on 2024. But for that we need to win in 2019. Thank you very much, Francisco. We give a floor now to Roscombe Abing, Head of Fundamental Rights Promotion Department of the Fundamental Rights Agency. Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, when it comes to the EU, its achievements and fundamental rights, I ask you, is the glass half full or half empty? Have we reached the tipping point that threatens the entire EU project? Tabloids, as you will have seen, suggest that we live in the most insecure times ever. Yet the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard professor Dr. Steven Pinker has shown that we may, on the very contrary, be living in the most peaceful era. The world has become less violent and less people are killed than ever. President Obama continued this threat last month when he visited Germany. He reminded us that globally more people live in democracies than ever. We are wealthier, healthier and better educated with the global economy that has lifted more than a billion people from extreme poverty and created new middle classes around the world. The EU has also played a role. Its long-standing efforts to bring about peace, stability and prosperity was recognized in 2012 with the Nobel Peace Prize. And then there is the fact that the EU is legally built on a solid bedrock of values. Respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law. These values unite or at least should unite all member states. This is not to say that everything is fine. We all know it is not. So back to the question of half full or half empty. On this basis what can be done to strengthen people's rights? I would like to shortly address four key points. Firstly, raising rights awareness. Secondly, promoting the use of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Three, civic and human rights education. Four, developing partnerships for rights awareness. Firstly, rights awareness must go far beyond one-way communication. Research by my agency as well as Euro barometer findings suggests that rights awareness is worryingly low. For example, only around half of the Roma people fundamental rights agency surveyed were aware of entry discrimination laws. Knowing that it is prohibited for them to be discriminated. Laws contained in law books, however, by themselves and alone are clearly not enough. They need to be known to be invoked. Awareness raising measures can therefore be effective tools for strengthening the rights people are legally entitled to. However, a change in attitudes and behavior is also needed. This cannot be achieved by traditional top-down information campaigns and instead of thinking in terms of target audiences we must learn to work with dialogue partners from the outset. So rights awareness must therefore be more than mere information. Dialogue, engagement and partnership is needed. Secondly, strengthening people's rights and better promotion of the use of the Charter of Fundamental Rights is essential. The Charter is of course in itself tool to strengthen people's rights in that it is the EU's very own legally binding rights. Here it is crucial to understand that human rights are for everyone and not just for citizens. Legally speaking there is no hierarchy of rights holders. Respect must be for everyone and by everyone. At the same time entitlement to rights is no one-way street. We must also pass the message that with rights comes obligations responsibilities. If you have the right to wear cross, veil or cap and practice your religion so too do your neighbors when it comes to following their beliefs or to respect the decision by a fellow faith follower to not wear any symbols at all. Greater and possibly also more innovative efforts are needed to promote and build understanding of the Charter among the public and in particular among professional groups and young people. This can be done by training and by encouraging for instance legal practitioners to use the Charter in national and European courtrooms. But it also applies to many other professions from the border guards dealing with the design seekers and traffic women and children to the police officers and lawyers investigating and prosecuting instances of crime. However, it is not just about supporting duty bears, it is also about empowering rights holders. They need to know what their rights obligations and responsibilities are so that they are aware of violations or infringements of these rights. And then support is paramount for them to find redress, not to mention where to go to and who to talk to for assistance. It is also about empowering all those young people who spend much of their time on digital channels which are being used to steer hatred and propagate myths. Critical thinking, media literacy and the ability to develop informed opinions grasp realities and resist all forms of indoctrination techniques and hate speech is therefore vital. When we try to spread the Charter's message we should reach out and use language and terms people can relate to using the platforms to engage with. Here obviously we need to embrace the digital world and the social media and work with the media, educators young people and professional groups. Teachers cannot be left alone with the task of teaching, values and fundamental rights and should be able to draw on the support of civil society. Or today very encouragingly I saw from a press release of the European Commission that a code of conduct has been adopted today with the Commission and with internet providers and with Facebook, Google, Twitter on a code of conduct with a view to reducing as much as possible hate speech. The Charter has also catalyzed and continues to catalyze the protection and promotion of fundamental rights across the EU. For instance, fundamental rights compliance has to be assessed before any new measure or amendment can be signed off. Fundamental rights are increasingly being hardwired into more and more EU policies and legislation. In addition to its obvious legal use we can and should better use the Charter as our values GPS as our rights and freedoms navigator. Beyond selling the Charter how can a deep understanding be encouraged what the Charter and its content actually means for every man, woman and child in the EU? How can it become a constant companion, a reference guide, a moral compass guiding people so that they intuitively know what their rights are as well as their responsibilities? In that sense, the Charter seen as a collection of all our important values framed into a legal text can be a fantastic tool to raise awareness and to create a shared understanding of our core values and what underpins the notion of citizenship. Both among citizens as well as among the newly arrived. While awareness of the Charter appears to be growing, standing currently at 65% understanding of what it actually means remains very low at 14%. So how can we make the Charter resonate with people? We need a positive narrative around the Charter of real everyday matters to people. Education, jobs, healthcare, justice the freedom to be yourself without discrimination, in other words bringing the Charter to life. In this way means modelling in all possible contexts how human rights can actually be lived by the people of Lesbos, for example who have by the way as you may know been nominated for the mobile prize. Parents, teachers, politicians, public figures are crucial role models in this regard. In other words, it's not enough to sell the Charter we must find a way to enshrine the Charter's values in day to day life of duty bears and rights holders as well as in people's hearts and behaviour and this leads directly to my next point education. Human rights and civic education must form a part of the curricula of all students and I don't just mean as we are here university and secondary but also primary education and why not even already at the kindergarten as attitudes and behaviour are formed pre-school from the very outset there for children must learn about diversity about tolerance about respect for others. Freedom of speech in that sense is also one thing but they should also develop the freedom to listen as Oxford professor Brian Clark has nicely phrased it if they learn and understand all this from an early age and build in empathy in the DNA of their Charter's age-old bigotries may wane only then can we expect intercultural dialogue and understanding to happen. We also need to ensure that young people feel included in schools as individuals irrespective of their background and as said we need to empower educators to promote fundamental values by offering training and tools. I come to my fourth and last point we need to work together better. Is it too much to expect it is too much to expect that any one government organization or even country can deal with the challenges alone. We you and me the people civil society of Europe also have a role to play and so the cooperation between the organizations with the human rights remits whether they are international and whether governmental or non-governmental. It has to change and expand. We need to set in motion effective multi-level cooperation of actors at all levels. We must share even better than we do now intelligence and build up effective cooperation channels for cross-national sharing of experiences. In this regard practical experiences of local regional authorities provides a great wealth of resources and knowledge in what works in different local communities. For many years the very same city of Barcelona has brought the views of everybody into the life of the city. For instance using municipal councils for Roma, migrants etc. These initiatives and many others help to ground citizenship into rights holders and duty bears realities. Ladies and gentlemen I sum up that human rights awareness must go beyond mere information it should encompass dialogue and partnership. Secondly it's not enough to promote the values of the charter. We must find a way that people are empowered and feel inspired to enshrine those values in their day-to-day life. Three human rights education and civic education should be mainstreamed across education and training. And fourth we need to learn to cooperate this includes learning new ways of listening to each other and of learning from each other and build more on our strengths and complementarities. In conclusion is the glass half full or half empty? Well maybe that question misses the whole point. The point is that the glass is refillable let's start finding it together. Thank you very much for this very contentful presentation any comment, feedback straight away on this human rights dimension of our work or educational part? Yes please introduce yourself and be brief. I understand my name is Susan Flock and I'm from the European trade union committee for education and so I'm very happy to hear this strong commitment to education and training which is really important for European citizenship and the values of democracy and tolerance. I would also like to strengthen one of the other partners that you mentioned or the dialogue that you mentioned of course coming from the trade unions a very important partner in the world of education in the world of work are the social partners so they are a strong partner there and I invite you to consider the partnership also with the social partners. Thank you very much another one? Yes, it's coming. Thanks Nicolo Milanesi from European alternatives. Is the glass half full or half empty? It seems to me maybe the glass has several holes in it right at the moment and those holes might be associated with different countries in which fundamental rights are being undermined. Of course there's the headline cases of places like Hungary and Poland but also other countries inside the European Union which are less well covered by the media if we think of Croatia and the quasi-fascist culture minister if we think of suppressions of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly also in Western European countries one could think that actually the glass has several holes in it and so I wanted to hear the opinions of the panel and you in particular how important it is that the European Union shows itself to be firm against any kind of democratic backsliding. Yes, well noted the last point here and then we move on over there, yes? Hello everybody my name is Dragan, I'm from Croatia and thank you for these comments so European Union there are several countries like Poland Hungary and Croatia now which are the shame for European Union because these countries don't meet EU standards anymore what to say to other candidate countries which wants to join EU when they see Croatia, Poland and Hungary and what is the problem because there is no reaction from Brussels and it's a shame for EU for real in Croatia there is a systematic attack on civil society organization and there are no EU funds for our activities there are no domestic funds anymore and actually fascism is mainstreaming all the time there is strong influence of Catholic Church on political processes in Croatia and we are not optimistic at all there is also systematic political attack on media and there is no there are no reactions from Brussels so is there only beginning in European Union and it means that European Union gave up from very high democratic standards thank you very much thank you very much I think you share a few feedback so Friso and then Francisco just to of course warmly welcome the offer by trade unions also stressing the importance of the role the social partners play in many aspects on the education but indeed also employment issues if there is one extremely dangerous development now it's still that there is an acceptable high level of discrimination on the labour market that's a very big concern it's very much a problem if second or third generation Gaston-Bijter Kinder my home country in Netherlands Moroccan origin for instance have to apply 150 times and each and every time their name is seen with the same CV as people with a Dutch name and they are not invited this is of course devastating it's devastating for them to ultimately get into society and it would then not be surprising that they at a certain point feel excluded and even with more serious even more serious consequences so the access to the labour market equality the labour market is extremely important secondly also a very important role which employers and trade unions can play is also generally with the arrival now of a lot of refugees we had 1 million last year it will be fewer it seems this year but we don't know but it's very important that social partners contribute to integrating them as soon as possible making also good use of skills they bring in but indeed assisting governmental authorities with that whole process which ultimately is a responsibility for all of us for inclusion so I can only warmly welcome a very important statement you made thank you excuse me I am going I am trying to answer to Poland, Hungary and Croatia ok we are the garden of the treatise we have a powerful weapon that is the infringement procedures and we are dealing the situation with Hungary with the normal infringement procedures based on the European key on non-discrimination and other rules the case of Poland is different the European news based on the democracy fundamental rights and rule of law principles or values and in the case of Poland there is not a concrete possible infringement but we have in 2014 adopted the so-called framework on the rule of law what that means? that means that we don't have competence to go against a country that is so-called violating the fundamental fundamental rights except of course the sanctions article 7 etc etc we have decided to adopt this political preventive instrument that means that we enter in dialogue with Polish authorities to be sure that the national rule of law can continue to play in concreta we have no competence to decide if the law change in the constitutional court is constitutional or not we have no competencies but Poland has obligation because it's not they are going against their duties as member of the European Union to ensure that the change at the constitutional level are ensuring that the Polish national rule of law can work that there is a difference between Poland and between Hungary and concerning Croatia all we can act via infirmary procedure when we have the knowledge of a possible infringement and normally we do that either because we are controlling the correct implementation of the AKI or because we receive complaints any complain oblige us to investigate and we can ex-officio decide if we go or not for infringement procedures that's the only thing they can say now thank you I give the floor to Asia from the European city of Croatia thank you very much when first I read the question which is in the core of today's debate how to consolidate your achievements and strengthen the union citizens rights my first thought was a saying which I think you all have heard which appear to be part of the Serenity prayer which defines what who is the miss namely having the courage to change what can be changed having the Serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed and most importantly being wise enough in order to make the difference between the two so my ultimate answer to the question which is posed by the moderator is we have to consolidate our achievements wisely and this translated to the European citizenship concept means in my view we have to be able to wisely identify what is important to keep protect safeguard and not take for granted we have to be able also to identify what we have in hands as instruments that should be further developed was but not least we have to be able to see what is missing from the picture and what should be added in order to complete the concept and make it work and if you allow me I would like to illustrate those three aspects of the so called wisdom through examples what I believe we have to safeguard and not take for granted is the freedom of movement and I know that many of you think that this is just some feature of the internal market and as it was mentioned it's very difficult to fall in love with an internal market but is this really so I would most probably disagree to a certain extent maybe it's difficult to fall in love with the internal market on paper but the freedom of movement is not by chance being defined by the European citizens as their most cherished right it simply has a huge impact on their everyday life it is the mechanism which can ensure that we can cope with asymmetric economic shocks in Europe so if you're a citizen of a small or even an average country in economic recession if you're a young person which has lost his job or never found one and you're in a country in a member state where you have more than 40% in employment of young people because of the fact that your country is part of the single market you can go and seek for work somewhere else and actually this is the case in many countries which have gone through the recession like Ireland because this was their reality Irish young people went to other countries they acquired the needed skills and they came back when the economic situation improved bringing new skills to the labour market can you imagine what would have been the case with those young people if they were simply limited to their national state staying unemployed for years and in the future this could have been for them or another example if you're an Erasmus student you go somewhere you do Erasmus and you acquire those famous transversal skills which apparently are sold by 92% of the employers and because of that you find a job why not fall in love with you I would have this brings me to another point unfortunately this ultimate achievement of the European project has been and we are witnessing that on a daily basis victimised recently because of the so called alleged myth of the benefit tourism because of threats for security I think we have to know better when there is a problem what needs to be done is simply to identify the root of the problem and to try to provide a solution which is adequate to where the problem stands a couple of years, two years ago actually we've done a study which assessed the impact of new migrants to four countries the UK, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands maybe not strangely enough the figures are very clear in those countries EU migrants are benefit contributors to the benefit and the social system in UK big times, three times more than in the other three countries and this is not to say that there are no problems or misuse of the system yes there are maybe I'm sure there are but this is why we have a system in place in order to deal with this misuse probably there are also problems at municipal and local level if for example you find all of a sudden that a big group of EU migrants or refugees doesn't matter, have ended up at this place and then it puts pressure to the local system but then most probably there are mechanisms mechanisms to look at this problem and try to solve it where it is and not turn examples which are an exception into a general rule and on that basis try to revision the entire system allegedly because it doesn't work second, recently terrorist attacks threats, scared scared people very committed politicians to solve the problems again free movement is at stake there are borders that are restored there are also in my view out of proportion security measures adopted meanwhile if we look at the mechanisms that we have in hand we have shengen we used to look at shengen only in terms of border control but actually a very important part of the shengen system is the shengen informational system which is most probably I hope you know that this is a very powerful tool that can allow member states to track criminals as well as weapons as well as stolen goods in real time looking at the evaluation reports of the European commission on shengen it seems that countries in the heart of Europe have never done their homework in order to adopt the legislation and practices in place in order to have a full advantage of the shengen informational system against this background however you know national police cannot track for months convicted criminals which have escaped a parole warrant this leads all of a sudden to the prospect of sharing our personal data everywhere in case you board the plane of a sudden to restoring borders is this really the proportionate response to what we are experiencing my point here is to be wise means to be rational and not to follow emotions not to follow a victim of the emotion of the day and this is something that unfortunately we are not seeing nowadays my second point what should be improved yes the shengen informational system should be improved yes the ECI regulation should be improved the European citizen initiative it's a good tool that we have in our hands it has to be made user friendly once but not least what is missing listening to people is missing at European level and it makes sense because this is a system which is based on representative democracy and it should be like this the represented interests are listened to and this makes sense fair enough however there are 40% of European citizens that say that they don't want to be represented nevertheless they want to be hurt young people among them the European commission is trying to put in one of the same basket which is the consultation both the organized interests and the citizens and it doesn't work it annoys the organized interests because the process is slowed down because of citizens they ask about what those individual contribution bring it also annoys citizens because this is simply a tool not designed for them my point here is that we need to have to replace what already exists but complementing it and I believe that with the new technologies there are enough examples not only in Europe but around the world crowdsourced legislation which have shown that there is a potential of listening to the wisdom of the crowd actually decision makers which have gone through this exercise find themselves quite surprised about the rational and the good quality of some of the decisions which are quite innovative two weeks ago we had a conference in Brussels together with 11 partners from all over Europe and also beyond debating the European citizenship under the EU impact project the conference was called European citizenship what we stand to lose and very much in line with the previous speakers the conclusion of the conference was that the only way in which we can enact and give new boost to the European citizenship which is a multi-phase concept is if we look at it as an ecosystem a system of interconnection because of the many levels at which it should be implemented we usually refer to the European level and say now the European commission should do this and this that's true there could be more, that could be done but there is an equal responsibility also lying with the member states and not only with the local authorities if you're a new citizen going to a host country the first the first experience you have is with the local authorities so they should be the one welcoming you and providing a more enabling environment in order not to you to go and to ask for your rights but just the opposite to be granted the rights and to be put in a situation where it comes naturally to implement them the same is valid with the relation between the very many different aspects of the European citizenship we have the rights we have also the values we have the participation so as we know the most important thing in every ecosystem is the links between the different components and those links are exactly communication, raising awareness not only of the rights but of the ways of enforcement was but not least the oxygen of the ecosystem and the oxygen is the civic energy and those of us who have been working in the not-for-profit sector for years we know that one of the most wonderful things in our job are actually achieved not so much with funds but with civic energy and in order to have this civic energy we need inspiration and for this inspiration to have it we have to have more conferences like this and to talk to each other more thank you now we will take 15 minutes more in the program I suggest to give the floor to Pierre which will be the final speaker and then to open a final debate on 10 minutes with the floor so Pierre you have the floor thank you very much I'm Pierre I'm the director of social platform you never heard maybe of me or neither of social platform but we are a network of 47 European umbrella working on social inclusion non-discrimination I was given 10 minutes I'm going to give to take only 5 minutes I'm not talking my phone now so I'm making sure that when it rings I stop talking because I believe that we need to live by our principles so it means to be participatory so I would try to give the time for you and also because I truly believe in our movement we always say nothing about us without us so it's not about doing policy for people but doing policy with people and I think this is something that we have to start to implement there's a lot of people in this room with good intentions but a lot of things can be achieved if we give the room for people to participate in the policies that they want to see in practice and as an example from this morning as a starting point about the definitions of EU identity we heard from Grazina that there was the notion of east and west or involving people from different origins that's already a starting point and we heard from Friso that it's important to have a dialogue with people as well so already a social platform we're saying that we're not talking about citizens we're talking about people living in the EU that can address already the question asked by our friends from Finland who come from Russia what do we do with people who just live there but who have different status than citizenship the reason why I'm taking only five minutes as well is because I have questions I don't have the answers for you I have to develop the answers with you the question I have are the following is are we talking about the achievement of rights but for who is it for everybody or just for the few and then the second question do I really want to consolidate all the achievement of the EU I'm not so sure and then how the EU can better protect the majority of the people in particular the most vulnerable of our societies so I have three minutes left when it comes to protections the the the deputy director general that the rights are there I said yes but for who for the majority of the rights that have been promoted by the EU concerns very few people the one who can travel they are proud to have passport free borders diminished roaming, cheaper flight more consumer rights when they travel but the majority of Europeans don't they don't live abroad they live in their own countries and then European Union appears to be very elitist in its approach and not protect the vulnerable people look at the posting of worker directive proposed by the commissions same wage, same jobs at the same place is refused by 11 member states this core principle is refused by 11 member states to be adopted and we are living at this I mean in case we forgotten since 2008 we are living in the worst economic crisis and consequences when one in four Europeans has a poverty a level of inequality have risen and still nothing has been proposed why they were objective in 2010 to reduce them by the European council so then my question is do I want an old achievement to be promoted I say no because for so many of us the EU is perceived as a threat in a country like Italy the level of support to the EU has decreased after the adoption has led by Brussels and that decreased the legitimacy of Europe and economic policies is driven by the council all member states and the commissions and it has an impact on social policy and this is what people feel they feel lower child allowance lower social security benefit lower unemployment benefit this is what they feel and they are told that this is coming from Brussels and economic policies and I'm saying to the EU and the parliament and the member states with the power in economic policy comes responsibility responsibility and the impact on the social rights of people and then my third question is who is responsible for that because here we have representatives from the commissions they might be from the parliament since 2008 they were proposal for better legislation to protect people against discrimination in access to services there was a proposal for better protection on maternity leave so that women and they would have better payment better protections against dismissal but who refused that it was proposed by the commission it was endorsed and supported by the parliament is member states when they meet in Brussels that put it in the bin and they say we don't want to adopt it and here as citizens we have to see that there is a problem of transparency and accountability from the member states that always blame Brussels when in fact is their own responsibility for not doing it so we need better legislations to be promoted and we need to monitor our governments when they take decision in Brussels what did they say did they support or not a better legislation my conclusions and I have seven seconds is really about nothing about us without us I mean it's about making sure that we're following the proposals that are meant by the councils I have here on the same table Asia last or two weeks ago when we're sitting in the same table she made a proposal to the commission and member states for a better implementation of European citizens initiatives that's something to make it simpler to make it more accessible to citizens there are three million people who signed the petitions again the trade agreement with the United States the European Union has to listen to what people are saying about it and finally my conclusions that starts from my first principle is that the solution is not with me here on the panel the solution is not with you here in this room it's partly with you but it's also by engaging people outside this room citizens to make sure that how they understand the kind of right they want to see achieved is taken into account by decision maker thank you thank you so final comments from the floor we'll take a few yes over there Aline Zupp, Maastricht University so the place where all the mistakes were made basically that's where I work I couldn't agree more with the last speaker particularly it makes me very angry when I see that the European Union is being accused of things that they don't have any competences in however, I mean all of the speakers in this panel and in the other panel stress the same thing that it's up to information that there's maybe an information gap when it comes to citizens that there's maybe some information that is not being transmitted very well and I think what really puzzled me in all of the panels was that a really important actor is missing here which is the media, no one of you talked about the media, citizens don't get the information from the website of the European Parliament for example it's the media, particularly the national media where people get the information from and I'm not quite sure I don't have an answer here it's more of a comment really than a question I think but I think like if nothing changes in the media landscape particularly the national media landscape would go very far Hi, my name is Hedwick from from Malta, I just want to comment on what Asya has said about freedom of movement we are also doing a project where we're consulting citizens on issues of democratic debate and one of the issues that came up is that in terms of freedom of movement, you find you mentioned that people can move around looking for work because in some situations there is recession all over so what is happening is now when people move, especially families maybe the rights that they can access in their own member states are not accessible in another, for example I moved from England to go and settle in Malta and I find that the benefits I got in England are not the same as I'm getting in Malta and this is not just unique to me but this is unique maybe to also people from Germany, from Ireland, from other states so what people are saying is there's no uniform agreement on basic human rights if one is out of employment in your own nation maybe you can get access to unemployment benefit and housing benefit but in other states it's not happening so this is actually ending making people desperate as well because there's no uniformity within the member states I'm Andrea Despot European Academy Berlin basically picking up on what was said on the panel both and the colleague from Maastricht I just want to maybe suggest that it might be worthwhile taking into consideration that there is no information gap at all from our point of view from our field work basically the consumers that citizens are actually very apt and very quick and very knowledgeable when it comes to gathering information analyzing them very well so basically what you were saying that let's be rational, let's not be emotional and the blessings of Europe are self-evident well I would love to believe that and I basically follow the same line of argument however what we find coming from Germany that there is actually there are a lot of inconsistencies with that on the one hand probably we are the best and most prosperous of European states at the moment and at the same time we see populist movements, we see right-wing extremism on its rise so I'm afraid again it's not an information gap it's rather people exploiting Europe being a scapegoat and this is what brings me to education and civic education in particular which basically ties back to our information we need to listen to people on the one hand and then at the same time finding tools in addressing them because it's not a misunderstanding that national governments use Europe as a scapegoat rather it's a political strategy and we should counter political strategies with very apt tools and again this is listening to people this is really basically taking their emotions emotions about Europe very seriously and empower ourselves and go into this argumentative and emotional battles over well basically the interpretation of Europe thank you so much thank you very much I have a question about Asia concerning falling in love with the free my name is Gilda Farrell I'm living in Portugal and falling in love with the free market and with the possibilities for young people to move from one country to another if you live in the south of Europe you see that somehow there is an irresponsibility in promoting mobility of young people because in the south most of the intelligences are you know migrating to the north or to the United States or whatsoever and there is not a real policy to facilitate the life of people that instead of moving away could create something in their own country and I think it might be interesting for the European Union to promote a policy for the diasporas especially in the southern countries of Europe because it is a pity when you go to a bar in Scotland to find a Portuguese engineer in serving you know in the bar and I think we are losing the intelligences in the south of Europe and I think there is a common responsibility not to use an engineer to serve the table in Scotland while you know the Portuguese or whatsoever Italian the Italian state or the Spanish have invested in you know training someone at the university so I think we cannot be so I'm sorry you know a bit superficial on this falling in love I think love is something that needs a bit of you know engagement and engagement is equilibrium between the countries otherwise you know beyond the austerity measures that are hindering people from you know creativity in the south the southern countries are losing as well the intelligences and I think it should be the same for Bulgaria and Romania because I suppose you are Bulgarian thank you very much thank you very much I think this is it so we have to respect the panel which will come late so I thank you very much for this debate and the panelists I think we will stop and we had some good sources of inspiration a lot to do thank you very much