 This is the debate on the future of Europe. We have the great honor and pleasure of welcoming Vice President Sweetshaf, the Vice President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography. So she has been with us several times before, always available, always interested in the work of the Committee of the Regions. So it is a great pleasure to have her here with us today. I would like on behalf of all the members of the Committee of the Regions, I would like to welcome you. In our State of the Union Address on September 4, the President of the European Commission highlighted that the conference was a successful experiment, both as an exercise in participatory democracy and as a way to improve the EU's policy making. President von der Leyen also endorsed the call of the European Parliament for a convention to revise the treaties. In our case, the Committee of the Regions in June 2022 this year, we have supported also this call. So the Committee calls that any future convention should fully involve members of the Committee to represent the voices of over one million regionally and locally elected representatives in Europe. Two weeks ago, I also had the honor and pleasure to have an exchange with Vice President Sweetsha and a very fruitful bilateral meeting in view of this exchange during this plenary session. So without further delay, I would like to give the floor to Vice President Sweetsha thanking you for having accept our invitation. You have the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you. Good afternoon to everybody. Thank you, President. Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear members, it is also my pleasure to be again in the Committee of the Regions and I say this as the European Vice President for Democracy and Demography and as a former mayor of Dubrovnik with continued links to the grassroots of local politics. Those grassroots are telling me that people are sometimes feeling left behind. Those grassroots tell me that the center is not holding as well as it could. We must be careful of the extremes on both sides of our political spectrum and we cannot leave a vacuum. Otherwise, this will be exploited by less constructive narratives. We have to act now and pull together at all levels to build democratic resilience from within. This is my first message to you today. My second message is that even as we face a number of challenges, there is still a lot we can do and we can do it together. Over one year through the Conference of the Future of Europe, we gave an opportunity to citizens to deliberate with each other in an inclusive, safe and transparent public space. I have always insisting on keeping the citizens at the center of this process. If the Conference is to be considered a success, as you said, President, I believe it is also. Then we owe this success in the first place to the citizens who produced concrete results. The European Committee of the Regions has been a fundamental partner of the Conference. I want to thank you all for your active engagement and all the contributions generated across our union, from the mountains to the islands. The Conference 49 proposals reflect the aspirations of 800 randomly selected citizens who dedicated their time to deliberating on the future European Union they want to live in and work in. As stated in the joint declaration, as it is now up to European institutions to follow up. With that in mind, the Conference is the basis on which we are fashioning the upcoming Commission's work program for the next year. President von der Leyen, recent State of the Union address, said the scene. Democracy was the thread running through her entire speech from expressing support to the people of Ukraine to the announcement of the Defense of Democracy package or initiative for the next year. She also mentioned the number of important actions that respond directly to citizens' proposals from the Conference. This shows that our engagement with citizens is not restricted only to elections. In fact, it goes much deeper. Our communication of June this year is one of several responses to citizens' proposals. The communication embodies the Liberative Democracy into our policymaking. We are putting a vision into concrete action. The Conference has sown the seeds for a significant change in policymaking at the European level. The Conference coincided with an unparalleled health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to adapt, but democracy cannot stop for a pandemic. We ensured that citizens maintain their deliberative space, their voice, their input and contributions. This is especially important in times of crisis when some may have their flags are restricting, some may have the reflex of restricting the democratic space. Then just as we thought that we were getting ahead of COVID-19 curve, another crisis arose. War raised its ugly head on our continent once again. In stark contrast to the Kremlin's aggression, citizens of the Conference took the initiative to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. I will always remember the brave Ukrainians who spoke at the Conference plenary in March earlier this year. We gave them a much-needed space for their voice. Providing this safe space is an important point I will return to later. Most of all, in these times of misinformation, creating this public space for citizens to participate and deliberate helps build trust with citizens. Providing citizens with feedback on their input puts a seal of legitimacy on this process. Let us not shy away from engaging with citizens on what we have already done for them. For example, the European climate law or the recent Better Internet for Kids. Or those initiatives the Commission has already proposed and which the Council and the European Parliament are called upon to adopt. For example, the new pact on migration. And I must refer also to new initiatives such as on mental health. Citizens explicitly asked for it. The Commission is delivering on this new policy area. This stems from the conference on the future of Europe as well as from the groundbreaking work on European care strategy that the Commission adopted the first week of September. It is also important to explain why in some cases we did not or could not address a specific policy issue. Some of the 49 proposals can be implemented rather swiftly by the institutions. However, others require a more thorough reflection. Or even treaty change in some cases. Indeed, in her State of the Union, as you mentioned, President, President von der Leyen noted that the moment has arrived for European convention. The Commission has shown that in times of need, we need a union that is closer to its people and bolder in responding both to historic challenges and the daily concerns of Europeans. We must do this not only for but also with citizens. Citizen engagement complements and indeed strengthens representative democracy. Having held elected office at the local, national and European level, I truly believe this. Voting in elections every four or five years cannot be enough for most citizens to participate in their democracy. Communication is a vital component of citizens' engagement. That is why before the end of the year, together with the European Parliament and with European Council, we will organize a feedback event with citizens. It will be an important moment to communicate and explain how the three institutions are following up to take stock of progress. Building on the success of the conference multilingual digital platform and with the view to creating an ecosystem of democratic engagement, we are improving our online engagement with citizens through the Have Your Safe Portal. We want to provide a hub where citizens can easily participate, provide input and receive feedback. All of us know that citizens are not object of democracy, but they are participants, of course. And we must facilitate their participation both on and offline. Another crucial aspect mentioned by the President in her State of Union dress is intergenerational solidarity. I'm sure that this is a topic that is dear to the European regions. I believe it deserves more visibility. I have been working in the beginning of my mandate to make sure that this element is mainstream in the initiatives of the Commission. President von der Leyen in her State of Union has underlined that participative and deliberative democracy works. Inspired by the conference, European citizens' panels will now become a permanent part of the way we make policy to make recommendations before we present key legislative proposals. The first such citizens' panel will address the issue of food waste. This item featured frequently in citizens' panels in the plenary debates and on the digital platform. It is part of the first proposal of the final conference report. We are currently recruiting citizens through random selection. When we started devising the first European citizens' panels, we drew on the experience of many regions and cities. You are naturally at the forefront when it comes to the citizens' engagement. By embedding citizens' panels in European policymaking, we are equipping our institutions with additional resources to foster their engagement. This complements your efforts, including also at the European Union level. Local and regional authorities are crucial for a healthy democracy. They are in a unique position to build bridges between citizens and the European Union, notably through the Committee of the Regions. I welcome your resolution on the outcome and follow-up of the conference that you adopted last June. It is vital that we build on our joint efforts in reaching out to citizens. Very concretely, we have proposed in July the building Europe with Local Counselors project, BLC project. The aim is to identify counselors at the local level who will communicate and engage with citizens about European programs and projects. I invite all of you to join in this unprecedented alliance. And to conclude, dear members, the European Union has created a European democratic space that crosses ages, borders, cultures, and histories. It is very much a transnational space. At the same time, all politics is local, as all of us know. We have the moral duty to nurture and protect this democratic space at all levels, for our children and for our grandchildren. Across all generations, with the view to building democratic resilience from within, we are looking at how to best equip citizens as they engage in democracy. This is an essential part of our thinking on the defense of democracy package scheduled for adoption next year. Our European Union needs the vision, engagement, and participation of all its people to build a better future, better democracy that is fit for the future. We can shape European integration through greater involvement of citizens, communities, and local, regional, and national institutions. And across the globe, as others look to us and our work in deliberative democracy, thanks to our courage to come together at all levels of governance to deliberate on our common future, European democracy will never be the same again. And I count on all of you here today in turning this vision into concrete action for the benefit of our citizens. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Madam Vice President. I will now open the floor to the debate with the members. And I would like to give the floor to our colleague, Mark Speich, for four minutes. You have the floor. Thank you for the floor, Mr. President, dear Vice President Sweetsha. Let me first, at the beginning of my intervention, thank you. Thank you for the continuous support that you have shown during the process. As a former mayor, you always had an open ear for the concerns of the regions and cities, and you have really supported our queries and our objectives in the process. So thank you very much for that. We very much appreciate that. So your presence here for us is, in a way, a signal of encouragement. So to have you on our side when the process continues and the process has to continue. Of course, we all know that we are living in difficult times. We see the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. We see the energy crisis, inflationary pressure. And many say that is why we should not talk about reform now. We should better concentrate on overcoming the crisis. And I do not agree with that. If we want to overcome the existing and the future challenges, we need more efficient procedures within the European Union. Almost half a year has passed since the end of the conference on the future of Europe. I still remember the very festive event on Europe Day on 9th May in Strasbourg. And all the speeches expressed the courage and the strong will for change. During the conference, we all have worked very hard to make this unique project a success. In my own region, North Rhine, Westphalia, and Germany, in addition to the citizens' dialogues, we started an online consultation where more than 28,000 citizens participated in a very short period of time. And many of our members here have supported the conference process in a very similar way. We have created the expectation among those involved that their ideas about the future of the EU will be taken serious. Honestly, at the moment, I'm not very clear what exactly I can report back to the citizens involved, at least when it comes to the implementation of many of the ideas. In her speech on the State of the Union, President Ursula von der Leyen outlined a number of legislative proposals that stem from the conference conclusions. And we appreciate that very much. So for instance, she mentioned the new Mental Health Initiative. But our president of the COR rightly highlighted that in the whole address, there was not a single reference to the fundamental level of European democracy. And that is the regional and local level. So that clearly was a disappointment for us. I believe that we should move forward even more bravely here. We need an institutionalized follow-up process. We also need to talk about structural reforms. Whatever we need to refer to to the concept of a convention is maybe an instrument, but that's not the core of our objective. It's of secondary importance. If it helps, then it's good. For me, it is clear that the expectations of the citizens are certainly higher than what could be fulfilled in the regular legislative process. Our own expectations, and by that, I mean us as representatives of the regions and municipalities in Europe, and as members of the COR, can also only be met in a broader format of a follow-up process. Of the proposals put forward by the conference, the recommendations on subsidiarity are of particularly importance to us. It is explicitly stated in the final report that active subsidiarity and multi-level governance are key principles and fundamental features of the EU. It then calls for a strengthening of the role of the COR within the institutional architecture in matters with territorial impact. This fundamental strengthening of the subnational level and the COR can only be realized in the context of a reform of the EU's institutional architecture. I know that the main problem here lies with the council. It is unfortunate that there is no progress there. And I assure you that we are doing our utmost to influence our national governments on that. I now ask you not to give up your ambitions for a serious and institutionalized follow-up process. The COR is ready to play an active role in shaping this process. We want to be involved and contribute our expertise to the process. We would like to do this again side by side with you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Christophe Ruyon. You have the floor for four minutes. Thank you. Can you all hear me? Thank you, Mr. Chair, Madam Commissioner. We're at a crucial moment of our joint history. Putin's actions have strengthened the EU. The conference on the future of Europe has been a useful exercise. We have to follow up now on that conference. Firstly, crisis management, the rise of Euroscepticism and developments in elections at European level. We have to remain active. We have to progress together. EU citizens came together to Strasbourg with members of European institutions and the members of the Committee of the Regents were present, too. There are a number of recommendations from the conference on the future of Europe. We have to now implement these recommendations from our citizens into specific political actions. There are some issues related to taxation and defence, for example. We have to ensure that all of these issues related to housing help that these are implemented for the good of our citizens. There has to be territorial cohesion. Have to be democratic in how we apply European policies at all levels. A report was presented yesterday dating from 2002. A very small number of people surveyed for that study felt that they had been involved and had benefited from European funding. That's a real pity. We want to see better citizen dialogue that will feed into European debate on regions and rural areas and will involve citizens in decision-making at a European level. Two questions. Which political instruments will these mechanisms be aimed at? Will we use these instruments in these difficult times that we're living through now? I urge you to be bold when it comes to European policy. Let's work on energy issues. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Mr Dekoster. You have the floor for three minutes. Thank you, Mr Dekoster. Thank you, President, Vice President, colleagues, I can say on behalf of my group how important the Conference of Future Jobs was for my group. An opportunity to excited responsibility and honor to have that possibility to build together with the European institutions and our fellow citizens of the future of the continent. The future of the continent requires recognition of its territorial dimension, its towns, cities, and regions. This mesh of local and regional elements is a very foundation of our European democracy. So it's useful to recall that. And like our previous speakers on this, I would like to stress that all the recommendations that emerged from the Conference on the Future of Europe should be implemented. Any innovation which will enable us to follow the way in which we, in our turn, can turn proposals into actions will be welcome. And we do say very clearly that the Convention has to be held and the European Committee of Regions has to have a seat in it. Also, here in the Committee of Regions, we'd like to make sure that all proposals and recommendations can feed into the opinions which we then send to the European Parliament and to the Council of Ministers. And maybe one day they'll realize that there is actually a committee of regions that meets in Brussels. I echo on that my colleague, Mr. Speich. Madam Vice President, Chair of Democracy and Demography, I think one has to observe that European democracy in recent months has seen just how fragile it is because even if the Conference on the Future of Europe was a major success and my institutions were committed to it and my citizens were involved, today too few of our fellow citizens actually feel deep down, like us here, but they are citizens of Europe. The citizenship of Europe needs to be cruel. We have received our colleague from the European Parliament yesterday morning, Mr. Bagazzi, in our renewed Europe group, and she is trying to give legal form to European citizenship, a new status of European citizenship that she has proposed, and we are ready to back her on that. Also, we want local elected representatives to be more involved in European issues, not just those who go to the Committee of Regions, but also those who hold elected office throughout Europe. The initiative taken by the European Commission to propose a parallel sort of intermeshing of things seems to have troubled the waters when the Committee of Regions has created its own network. My commissioner, we must not be afraid to be brave. Any delay only leaves room for extremism and they delight to see us hesitate and discuss it, lengthen, be slow, and they move in. Today's Europe needs to be further integrated, be truly saved. Now the floor goes to our colleague, Mateo Bianchi. You have the floor for two and a half minutes. Thank you, President, Madam Vice President of the Commission. We appreciate very much that you've come to be with us today at the Plenary of the Committee of Regions. At a time when you were frequent guest and you were mayor of Dubrovnik and Vice President of the Council of Europe's Congress of Regional Local Authorities. So we have no doubts that you are genuine and when you say you're close to local regional authorities and your credentials prove it. Now looking at the Conference on the Future of Europe, that has been a positive signal from the European institutions towards local authorities. Our voice needs to be listened to. That's obvious and I'd like to thank you for giving us this opportunity. And even more important thing is that many of our members in the Committee of Regions not only participated in the Conference but also organized local dialogues on European issues in their cities. And I think you'll agree with me, Madam Commissioner, that citizens are much more open when events like this are held compared to when they're asked to go on to Brussels or Strasbourg. A force of decentralized dialogue is that citizens tend to be more frank in the discussion and feel that the results have not been already decided on. So the first appearance of the Commission is that you should invest more in local dialogues with citizens and coordinate the actions with members of the Committee of Regions and other local and regional elected officials. Madam Commissioner, one should not push for a more centralized Europe. The European Parliament recently and also the President of the European Commission have said the treaties need to be revised. But when it comes to that, there are differences of opinion. Some would like to see reform of the treaty leading to greater powers for the European institutions, including the Committee of Regions. But I know that this is not the intention, as it seems. The real objective of revising the treaty is rather to centralize rather than devolve powers of a hope that proved to be wrong on that. The issues you deal with, something that the voice of Regions had less and less on. So it's one of those things with a good idea on paper. But what about the smaller, more weaker countries if a power of the majority is abused? So what is it going to be the impact of such proposals and treaty change on the balance of power between European institutions? Also, regards of the question of unity that the European Union has to show when facing external threats. Too many of these questions are still unanswered. And for that reason, our Group ECR remains skeptical about this. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our colleague, Kiran McCarthy. You have the floor for two minutes. Yeah, thank you, Marcus. Thank you, Mr. President, Madam Commissioner. Together, we are strong. That's a saying in Irish, and it should be our slogan as we work together. I spent a lot of time working on the conference on the future of Europe. Some wonderful ideas were generated, but I am disappointed that there hasn't been much follow-up done. I would like to see more follow-up. I am disappointed is that, and I welcome the feedback session you're proposing, but I have been contacted by a number of citizens who in one way or another were actually on the conference. There were one of the 800 people, and they're asking questions, what's happening with the process? They're questioning the communication. So yes, we will get to early December. What I am getting emails from people going, I saw you speaking up at the conference where you are as a rep in the Committee of the Regions and how can you influence the process? The Joint Secretariat has been disbanded. There's no point to contact where citizens, the 800 citizens, even us as policy makers, the emails I'm getting, there's nowhere for me to actually send them. There's just no void. There's a void of just where am I supposed to send material. The info and response needs to depart from the DGs to the 800 citizens. It really does. What's in your notes today, with respect, is not in the hands of the 800 citizens, and I wish I've actually learned more in the last 10 minutes where we were at in the last, we'd say, two months because of the void. And I buy the idea, completely buy the idea that not everything can be done with the 49 recommendations or the 180 overall recommendations. I really buy that, but the citizens don't know that. They don't have the playbook of the European Commission. Many of them have gone back to their normal lives and they're just expecting an email or a phone call or something. And my other colleagues have said the expectations are so high with this. If we fail with this, the ownership, the participation, the distrust, it'll all actually set in. And then there's no point going on what I call a conference in the future of Europe, 2.0. There's no point going on that track unless we get this actually right now and we actually communicate to the citizens what information and what learn. And even, I mean, my question to you commissioners, like, can I ask you what learnings are you bringing from conference 1.0 into conference 2.0 or into the assembly if you're gonna create, that is my question. I mean, it feels to me that the bridge of communication with this conference is a flimsy plank at the moment that could be swept away at any point in time. And I say that with the deepest respect to you. I have a lot of time for you and I listen to you with a lot of, with a deep respect during the conference. But I think here we're just on a very dodgy plank that could fall very quickly. And these 800 citizens, we completely disillusioned. No mind the people who actually put in actually digital submissions. That's another debate for another time of where some of their ideas actually went to. So yes, I'm disappointed. Now the floor goes to our colleague, Una Power. You have the floor for two minutes. Thank you, Mr. President and thank you Madam Commissioner for your ongoing work and coming and joining us today. With the various challenges facing our citizens from climate change to inflation and energy poverty, having their voices at the heart of policymaking process is of the utmost importance. And I think it's worth highlighting again just how important the process of the conference of the future of Europe was in creating a more inclusive way of developing policy. By working directly with citizens, we were able to ensure youth participation and ensure that female voices were also heard at the heart of the policymaking process. This means of working ensures not only that our policy goals are representative of our citizens' wishes, but it also fosters stronger relations between political and citizen realms. If we want to strengthen our democratic processes, we must now look to more deliberative and citizen-based policymaking within all levels of your EU policymaking. The proposals that have come from the conference are incredibly strong across a whole range of topics and from a green point of view, we are very aligned with many of them. But it must now, as my colleagues have said, be our aim to ensure that these proposals are actualized into reality. We must not be all talk and no outcome. If we fail to bring these policies to being, we risk undermining fate into new deliberative processes. Using feedback sessions with citizens is a key part of this, but we also have to have inter-institutional oversight to ensure that the legislative steps are taken. For us here, it is important that the core plays a part of this. We are at the forefront of implementation in our regions and cities. We've played a significant role and a strong role within the deliberative stages of the conference, and we can bring particular knowledge and expertise to oversight and implementation. So I might echo my colleague, Monsieur De Custer, and say that we need to act without hesitation and we need to act now. We have momentum and we need to live up to the promises that we have made. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our colleague, Adriana Nica, for one minute. Nope. Tobias Gotthard, one minute. Like always, I'll be honest, I'm a convinced European. I didn't find the conference of Europe without great success for many known reasons. People wouldn't raise their hands going on. Too few results inside the committee. I wouldn't show a rapid follow-up. We've got the homework we have to do first in regards to what you do when your house is burning down, you shouldn't be rearranging your living room. I'm very happy that Europe now has a framework and we have many types of time to act. We have to deliver. Now in regards to citizens dialogue, it looks okay, but the important thing is somebody who's in the Bavarian regional parliament it shouldn't be to the detriment of established institutionalised processes that have a positive proof of Bavaria at the time. So a request to you is time to act quite in a tangible form rather than a follow-up without any results. The floor goes to colleague Birgit Ane, for one minute. Anna Magyar, one minute. Thank you. I've been telling you for a year that the future is just a part of our lives, more than our children, our grandchildren, and the future generations. We are waiting for a good future, if we don't break it here and now. We are waiting for a good future, if we can be born again. Now I would like to ask you and colleagues to pay attention to this. Just a minute, please. We don't have English translation. I'm sorry. Could you please... You have more time. Yes, thank you. Could you please restart your intervention, please? Please start. Madam Vice President, a year ago I spoke here already. The future only part of it belongs to our children and grandchildren, and our next generations. They will have a fine future as long as we don't ruin their future now, that we don't ruin their future now, if they indeed have a possibility to be born. Madam Vice President, President, colleagues, we've been thinking about the future of Europe, but the family has to be at the centre of much more so that our lives can be continued by our children and that it doesn't fail because of material problems in Hungary. Families bringing up children get some material support also for sending the children to school and for accommodation. And there are benefits and subsidies. Indeed, even to have a car at a reduced price for a family. So these are policies which a friendly family is working for all of Europe. Big Schwartzkiefer, one minute. Thank you for your support, Zagé. Thank you for the floor, Madam Vice President. It's always been stressed just how important it is for citizens to have a say, and that was what the Conference of Europe was all about too. As a local politician, I try to keep everybody informed about our activities. But if they ask me, what do you do in this seat? I say, I'm not very tangible to offer them, what can I say? We produce opinions and hope somebody reads them. Even President von der Leyen forgets to mention a role played by local authorities and regions, so it seems to me it's a bit of an empty hope. But European citizens are not citizens to use, to measure those things as cohesion policy, to see if it's working or not. Leading European politicians should familiarize themselves with what real problems are on the ground in Europe. What's it like if you have to live in a small village on 300 years a month and have to survive the winter in the energy crisis? These are real problems, local problems, and that is what it means to be close to a citizen. Go and see it. Thank you. Now the floor goes to colleague Juan Garcia Gallardo, for one minute. In the last few days... Recently, I've listened to many of you make proposals about transport, energy, and combating rural desertification. We've broached this in many different ways, but we've forgotten the essential. You place emphasis on climate change, but what about the future of Europe? There's no future of Europe without strong families and strong secure borders. The Greens are weakening European democracy. Europeans, our lives are not dependent on bike lanes and CO2 emissions. There are other necessities. We need to focus on the family, farming land, agricultural life. Europe needs less focus on the climate, and we need to focus more on our lifestyle. We need policies for families and for children. We need to stop focusing on Agenda 2030 and focus on what's happening now. Thank you very much. Now, Melanie, Andros Karajanis, one minute. Thank you, Mr President, Mrs Vice President. The future of Europe is in the contact elected people have with citizens. The European Union has to be everywhere, in villages and communities, in cities, in urban and rural areas, in the most remote areas through the local authorities. The European citizens have to get informed about European funding and European principles to the benefit of civil society. We are the best representatives of the EU. We are the voice of simple citizens. And that voice has to be heard by EU institutions. All the problems, all the concerns of European citizens have to be recorded, but also have to be heard. And something has to be done. Unfortunately, some green policies cannot be applied in countries that have a different geographical position and different climate conditions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Colleague Melanie Umel, you have the floor for one minute. Dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, it's clear that EU reforms make sense if they can bring advantages. EU can act faster and better. However, we don't want reforms just for reform's sake. And above all, we don't want a reform debate which doesn't involve the regions. And I refer you again quite clearly to the principle of subsidiarity. Now, as some previous speakers have said, quite right. We're meeting existential challenges right now. The war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, economic stability, climate change, nothing less than peace and prosperity at stake in Europe. And that's what you ought to be concentrating on, which means harnessing the economic power we have and strengthening our international trade. So I think it's important that what we actually can put into practice is what we should concentrate on. I read there are eight seats and 90% of the proposals actually can be implemented without changing anything in the treaties. And in that way, citizens can see that things are put into practice and experience it without lengthy debates about whether to change the treaty or not. That's what makes sense. That's what we should do and start with it as soon as possible. Thank you. The floor goes to colleague Ufuk Kaya for one minute. Thank you, President. The future of Europe looks like a rainbow. It's full of many colours and differences, but it goes in the same direction, really. But the future we shape by the youth, I'd like to go on what Mrs. Power said, that we really have to continue discussion with young people, organising conferences throughout Europe and taking up some of the five ideas and proposals they have. We need to get into discussion with young people and shape together in that way our future. So thank you for the good work done so far. I hope that this approach is something we'll pursue, not just in Brussels, but in our regions, cities, towns and villages. Thank you. Thank you. The floor goes to Mr. Tark for one minute. Thank you very much, Mr. President. And dear Vice President of the Commission, I would like to thank you for coming here today, joining us. Your past results, as the Mayor of Dubrovnik speak for themselves, but they also bear witness to the importance you attach to the local and regional authorities. The communication opening towards the public, those are the important pillars of the work of the Committee of Regions, and it is obvious that the citizens must be in the core of it. They must be in the centre of the policymaking and the conference on the future of Europe is something that clearly showed that, also with the important contribution by the Committee of the Region. I believe that this has shown that the Committee is doing a very important job and that we will continue to do so for the benefit of all of us. Thank you. And now to the last request for the floor in this debate with Madam Vice President of the European Commission. I give the floor to our colleague Nikola Dobrozlavic. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much, Mr. President. And Madam Vice President Schowitz, I would like to thank you for joining us today and also for everything you have done so far. Once again, we would like to commend you for including, in addition to the democracy, the democracy into your remit. All of us are aware of the value and importance of democracy as the foundation of the modern society. In some countries, this is often neglected and forgotten. However, the problems of demography are something that we are not always sufficiently aware of. We are all made more aware of it at the moment, not only for the survival of the European Union but of all our countries as well. That must be one of the key horizontal policies mainstreamed into all the policies of the European Union. I would like to thank the Vice President for everything that she has done, particularly taking into account the difficult times that we have been through the COVID crisis. What lies ahead is a very difficult road. And the Committee of Regents, Municipalities, cities and towns have to play an important role there. Do you have any other requests for the floor? So it is my pleasure to give the floor to Madam Vice President for final remarks for about five minutes. You have the floor, Madam. Thank you very much for all your remarks. I was listening carefully and taking notes carefully. First of all, let us clarify why we started this conference in the future of Europe because I heard some critical objections which can be also taken from our side but also let me clarify that we somehow realized that there is a gap between us policymakers and citizens and we wanted to make this gap narrow. This is the reason why we came toward citizens, why we organized all these different events all over European Union, in your member states, in your regions, in your cities, in your town halls and also on European level. It was envisaged to last for two years but unfortunately due to known reasons it lasted only one year. I think as I said in my introductory statement that we open a public space, a democratic public space to everyone. Everyone could have participated. Either not only 800 randomly selected citizens but citizens who were randomly selected at your level, citizens who could have come to multilingual digital platform and we made analysis and then took all this into consideration while comprising our final report on the communication of the future of Europe. The final result is 49 proposals. I'm sorry if President for the line haven't mentioned local and regional authorities during her speech but whatever she was talking was about citizens and local and regional authorities in the end. She might not have mentioned this but whatever she mentioned in her letter of intent, she sent her letter of intent with 13, listed with 13 different items to the leaders and she wanted them to continue working on this. These were the results of the conference on the future of Europe. I said at the beginning that we are now working on our commission work program from 2023. More than half of our program activities are based on the conference of the future of Europe so we cannot work faster than we can. This is because I heard that we are not doing follow-up. There is follow-up and there will be follow-up and you will see it through our legislation process. And what I said and one of the, not of the lessons learned but something which we accepted is that we enacted deliberative democracy. Before each key legislation process there will be organized a citizens panel. It will run case by case. I cannot tell you now exactly which one, which I said food waste first, then mental health second and then we will see. But we badly need this follow-up event which I think will be on the 2nd of December. On the 18th of October there will be General First Council in Luxembourg where I will be participating and then I will listen to 27 council members and let's see what they say. Commission was always and is always on the side of those who want to reform European Union, who want to make European Union better and this is what we are doing and this is what we want. This is the reason why president mentioned starting convention but this exercise was for citizens listening to them and now it's up to institutions to do their job. European Parliament is in favour. European Commission is in favour. Now we are looking forward to the council to see whether 27 member states are in agreement to organize conventions. Some of you were critical about this. When I say convention, it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to change institutional architecture although this should also be changed. President von der Leyen said that she want to change treaties in order to enshrine intergenerational solidarity into treaties. This is one of the reasons. There are many other reasons but there is also a lot inside or within the existing treaty which we can explore and we haven't explored yet. This is also true but according to the article 48 Commission is ready to do our job and we will do our job. I can understand smaller member states. The country I know best is also smaller member states and this may not be in their favour. So I am not advocating my member state here. I am advocating position of the European Commission and I am talking on behalf of all 27. So let's see how the situation will develop in general affairs council. What will leaders say in European council in the end? And on that this is we are dependent on this because three institutions should be in alignment. If they are not in alignment we cannot go further. So I can understand your quotation mark frustration but this is how it goes because now it's up to three institutions how to follow. Citizens were invited to tell their problems, to tell their concerns, to tell their ideas, their concerns and now it's up to us how to deal with all what we heard. But of course it's not the end. This is not the end of this deliberative democracy. I mentioned have your say portal. Now you can tell your citizens in Ireland that they can go to have your say portal and they will have all the information there. So the information are being processed there so it's not lack of communication at the moment but we badly need you. I must tell you we need you to communicate what we are doing because you are the ones who are close to citizens, closest to citizens and you can help us. I'm not hiding and I'm not shy to tell this today in front of this body. So it is very important. You asked me about the conference will the panels be conference 2-0? This was your question. As I said, citizens' panels will be a commission tool and not inter-institutional. So our commission, commission's tool. So on follow-up we have 13 different initiatives and we send this in the letter of intent to the council. But of course follow-up need to be a joint endeavor. I can agree with you and European Parliament and council have to do their part. We are here to do our part and we are not shying away. Someone mentioned Garcia Gallardo. You mentioned the family policy. I can understand what you are saying. It's very easy to reply to your question. This is very important and it's very easy to reply to your question. This is the first time in the history of the European Commission that we, as Mr. Dobroslavic said, that we enacted and we established portfolio on demography because we were in 2019 but even before demography is an issue in Europe and in the world. In Europe there is a shrinking population and in other parts of the world they are booming. So demography is very important. This is a reason why my portfolio is dedicated to this and we are, of course, taking into account aging continent and all this and lack of labour force and if we are going to be only 4% of the world population in 2070 then we have really to do something. It doesn't mean that there will be less of us Europeans but African and Latin America and other parts of the world they are booming and if you put this into equation then we are only 4% at the same time European Union wants to be leader in this leader in the how are we going to be leaders if we are only 4% of world population. This is the reason why I am dealing now with global demography because Europe is not an isolated island. Same as your county, as your region, as your city and so on. So we are dealing with this and as you might have heard that we adopted big care package may I say only few words to this care package since we are aging continent we live 10 years more so who is going to deal in long term care and healthcare with all these people. There is a shortage at labour market so we need people from third countries or we need we need risk killing or upskilling of our people in order to work with these people. At this moment 7 million women are not in the labour market because they have to take care about member of their family be it kid, be it parent so they work in informal care so we lack these 7 million women in labour market because they have to take care about their family members. So we are really taking care of all this and trying to see how to handle with this phenomenon and this is really phenomenal Europe is really very important issue and I'm not sure whether all politicians at different levels are aware of this fact sorry for misusing this opportunity but just to let you know that we think about family policies and all this but having children is personal choice and you can never impose anyone to have children but you can create environment and this is what we are doing with our cohesion policy building kindergartens, building schools you can now build schools with new recovery resilience fund which was not the option earlier so we are really dealing with it and those who told us that climate is not important I think climate is very important looking at green lady Mrs. Power, I think climate is very important because we have to save this planet for the sake of our children and grandchildren and may I say my final words this is something which I'm thinking a lot about when we started this commission it was first of December 2019 and that moment we said we have two priorities one is digital Europe and another one is European Green Deal at that moment nobody could have envisaged that COVID is coming and the digital skills and digitalization will be something which we badly need during lockdown nobody could have lived and nobody could have worked without this digital skills and then we out of realize how skillful we are and how we know all these zooms and skypes and all these different platforms so this was first priority we anticipated but nobody could have known at that moment that COVID is coming second EU Green Deal Repower Europe Renewables who could have known that the Russian war is coming and that we will be dependent on Russian gas or oil and we are we are investing in renewables we are investing in Repower Europe and we are preparing our Europe to be not to be any more dependent on Russian gas at this moment at the beginning of the war we were 40% we imported 40% of Russian gas at this moment we are at 7.5 which means that it doesn't mean that we invested that lot in repowers but we have directions from Norway from Algeria from Qatar and so on I don't want to broaden this story but just to let you know that we are working on all these on energy prices we are now trying to find solutions say something similar what you remember SURE program during COVID now we are working on something similar I cannot tell you more at the moment because it's being developed so something which will help citizens of Europe and small volume enterprises to get along with the problem of energy prices sorry for being so long but I just wanted to incorporate although there are many more questions but in 5 minutes I cannot tell all this so thank you very much thank you so much thank you so much Madam Vice President we really appreciate the fact that you accepted our invitation to be here today with us in fact you took the time to share with us your insights and your views in this debate about the future of Europe and let me say that you leave us today with our willingness to participate in that feedback event of course we are ready to do it count on us of course thank you so much Madam Vice President thank you ladies and gentlemen we will proceed