 Please take your seats so that we can start the second and last day of our plenary. Before we resume our work, I would like to inform you that there will be several voting sessions of opinions and amendments today. The first one is scheduled from 10.20 to 10.50. Thank you. The first one is scheduled from 10.20 to 10.50 a.m. The second one from 11.50 to 1.00 a.m. The third one from 3.20 to 4.20 p.m., followed by the vote on the resolution at 4.20 p.m. These voting slot timelines are approximate and may vary, of course, in practice, so please make sure that you are in the room or in front of your computer and ready to vote when the time comes. We start our day with a very interesting and high-level debate on the promotion of European democratic values through education to foster EU citizenship. I have the pleasure today to welcome with us for this debate the Vice President for the European Commission for Democracy and Demography, Mr. Brafka Suica, our good friend and strong ally of the committee, and, of course, Ms. Inge Siben, Associate Professor at the Thurbrook University, Mr. Dominic Ruiz-Veneza, Rapporteur on the Implementation of Citizenship Education Actions, Member of the European Parliament. So, dear Vice President Suica, dear Member of the European Parliament, de Vesa, dear colleagues, during these very challenging times, we truly realize the importance of strong, strong European democracies that are built on solid European values. We, the local and regional leaders and the local and regional authorities, play indeed a vital role in promoting European values and encouraging citizens' participation in democratic processes. These are crucial for countering the multiplying threats of democracy and should form an essential element within the education for all EU citizens. Now, these values can also be promoted in education in an autumn-up manner, in full respect of subsidiarity. And our regional and local elected members have launched a pilot project in this sense, and I also know that the European Parliament has adopted the Resolution on Citizenship Education. So together, we can harness the power of education to make the European Union better understood, and of course to build a common European identity which is expressed through the European citizenship. Because European citizenship is about fundamental rights and freedoms, freedoms of movement, of residence and rights that of course come with it. But it is also about responsibility, you know, and obligations. It is about building ownership since it must be an expression of a shared commitment to our European democratic values, which in turn must also be proven by votes at local, regional and national elections, and of course at the approaching European elections. Now, for all these reasons, in today's context, it is really crucial to show how the European Union matters to all of us, our families, our lives, our everyday lives. All this is also in line with the objectives of the working group on European democracy within the context of the conference on the future of Europe. Increasing citizens' participation and youth involvement in democracy and developing a full civic experience for Europeans as widely supported by the citizens' panels and in-conference proposals. So to this end, we join the call for the introduction of a European curriculum for civic education, which includes the promotion of European values, critical thinking and media literacy and knowledge about our Union. Now, in many of our members' regions and cities, there are already numerous good practices which our members have already shared with us. So I would like to thank warmly all those who contributed, because these good practices can now be consulted on our webpage. Before we open the debate, one last word to Vice President Suica. Vice President, I really want to thank you for your leadership as a co-chair in this conference on the future of Europe. We local and regional leaders feel that this might be the last opportunity for Europe to finally change, become more democratic, more transparent, more open, closer to its citizens. And I believe that under your leadership, this dialogue throughout these months has shown the interest of the citizens to make these changes. And I want you to know that not only do we recognize your crucial role in the evolving discussion in the conference on the future of Europe, but we also are certain that from now on you will be next to the Committee of Regions, as you have always been, in order to make sure that this House finds its way through these changes in order to make it a stronger House politically that will help the European Union bring Brussels, Strasbourg, back to the everyday lives of citizens, and at the same time the citizens closer to Europe. So we are here, we are, as you already know, your strong friends and allies, and do know that all of these members representing the 240 regions and the 90,000 Municipalities of Europe are here to help strengthen our common House, the European Union and Europe. Thank you very much and the floor is yours. Good morning to everybody. Thank you very much for your kind words. Thank you for this invitation. As you know, I was Mayor once, and once Mayor, always Mayor, so I can understand what is local and regional level, and I'm trying now from this level to somehow comprise all this, all your wishes and all your pleas, which we heard during this process of conference on the future of Europe, especially in the working group of democracy, and we will be, we are trying to incorporate all this in final conclusions. Thank you very much for this. You know that, as I already said, I insist on making our democracy and democratic institutions that underpin it fit for the future. This is what we are saying all the time. This is not only the motto, but we have to adapt our democracy to be fit for the future. This requires a comprehensive approach. It requires looking at our values because values will inform exactly what kind of democracy we want to strengthen. Do we want a democracy that empowers citizens to ensure they remain at its heart? Do we want a reimagined democracy that embraces change and innovation? How and when can citizens of all ages be empowered and provided with all necessary tools to engage in their democracy? We must future proof our democracy. Make it a healthy and safe place for people of all generations to come together to share their common future. At all levels, local, regional, national and European, across borders and across languages, across cultures and across histories, leaving no one and nowhere behind. As I said at our recent meeting in Marseille, local and regional authorities and European Committee of the Regions have been instrumental in bringing the conference on the future of Europe to citizens. As we move forward to the feedback phase, I trust that we can remain close partners. As I already said, citizens must recognize their efforts and input in the proposals coming out from the conference. This gives legitimacy to the whole process of the conference. The conference is an important step in making our democracy again fit for the future conference on the future of Europe. The success of the conference will be measured on the concrete results that we can deliver for our citizens. The European Commission has committed to follow up swiftly to the conference conclusions and is already carefully examining each recommendation and each proposal. But we will need you to reach out to the citizens to show them that European Union is engaging with their proposals and acting on them. We will only be able to reach everyone in partnership with you. You cannot do it from Commission's level, I hope you understand. I will co-chair the last conference, Plenary Taking Place Tomorrow and Saturday in Strasbourg. The plenary will put forward proposals on nine topics discussed over the last year. Citizens' engagement, inclusion in the policymaking process, civic education in democratic processes, as well as European values and the history of Europe. These are some of the ideas that feature prominently in our draft proposals. I know that the European Committee of the Regions has supported calls for the introduction of civic education, as your President already mentioned. As a former mayor and as a teacher myself, I very much welcome your call to promote European values, identities and citizenship through education and culture at regional and local level. Active citizenship is not a given. It must be nurtured. It is our common responsibility to ensure that this important attitude, a virtue in its own right, is part of education. From the very early stages and through the whole lives, informed discussions need informed citizens. In my work on demography, I look at all generations. When it comes to strengthening our democracy, we need to look at how we can help all generations to become more engaged, not only young people, but of course the highlight is on young people. This lies at the very heart of civic education and at the very base of strong democracies. At the European Union level, we are engaging all means at our disposal to achieve this goal. Besides other long-lasting Erasmus-plus actions targeting young people, we have opened up the Jean Monnet programme further beyond higher education. Because we also want to give the opportunity to younger Europeans to learn about the European Union. With the new Jean Monnet actions, learners from primary and secondary level onwards can now benefit from improved teaching about the European Union, its institutions and how our policies benefit their daily life. What we hope to achieve with the Jean Monnet programme is to add a European dimension to the active citizenship young people build up throughout their schooling. I have seen in the conference that as citizens became better informed about the European Union, they started feeling more committed to the problem. When it comes to the education, the more informed and better educated citizens are, the more likely they will engage and take ownership of their democracy at all stages of their life. To help with this, citizens have access to the EU Learning Corner on the School Education Gateway. It is an online platform for school education with a rich and broad offer of information and training courses. In addition, it provides a number of resources to support the integration of young Ukrainian refugees into the education systems of member states and also Erasmus-plus countries. A vital resource in the current circumstances. Education and research also play an important role in upholding the rule of law. On the 18th of January, the Commission adopted the package on higher education. The package emphasises how universities have a unique position at the crossroads of education, research, innovation, serving society and economy. Indeed, they are key actors to promote values such as the rule of law, human rights and international norms and standards. Member states are called on to protect, to nurture and to defend these values through their policies and funding opportunities. Including ensuring the protection of research against foreign interference. Under Horizon 2020, EU research project on democracy and governance received over 800 million euros of funding. Under the new Horizon Euro program for the period 2021 to 2027, the Commission will continue to fund such research. Dear members, dear ladies and gentlemen. As I mentioned earlier, just a few weeks ago I joined you in Marseille where we discussed building the House of European Democracy. It must be the place where every citizen can find their home. It is vital that the Commission and the European Committee of the Regions continue working closely together on this. After all, it is local councillors who are best placed to reach citizens. The Conference of the Future of Europe is another brick in the House of European Democracy. On the 9th of May, on the day of Europe, the final report of the Conference will be presented to the three Presidents in Strasbourg. President of the Commission, President of the Parliament, President of the Council. We will be joined there by citizens of all ages and backgrounds. It will be an important moment to take stock of what the citizens are proposing for our common future. The Conference of the Future of Europe is a celebration of our values. We are a union based on the respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. We can see the values of Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union in practice throughout every component of the Conference. We have created a space for free debate and deliberation in contrast to the brutal events in Ukraine. Indeed, the current unjustified and unprovoked aggression by the Kremlin reminds us that we can never take our democracy for granted. We have to work on it together every day at all levels. We need to reach contribution and participation of the 1.1 million elected representatives at the local level. We must get it right if we want to build a democracy that is worthy of its name. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Vice President Suica. Let me now give the floor to the member of the European Parliament, Dominic Roulz de Vesa, please. Thank you very much, dear President Cicicostas of the Committee of the Regions. It is a pleasure to accept your invitation and to continue working together as we have done also with the Bele project and the network of councillors on EU matters, which I think is a really strategic bet that we are doing. I am also glad to be with Vice President Suica and our colleague from the Tilburg University and honourable members of the Committee of the Regions. If you allow me, I will switch to Spanish to deliver my comments. I also like to begin by thanking the President for one of the points at the start of his intervention, which really touched me and that is the support that you expressed for our proposal, the European Parliament proposal. I was the rapporteur and it was adopted by the vast majority in the plenary on democracy and citizenship education. This is something that came from the conference on the future of Europe in the group on education and democracy. I think there is clearly collective demand to strengthen this dimension in education. I would also like to raise the question of education of values, education on citizenship and place it in the geopolitical context because I think there has been a feeling that this is a fairly soft subject matter. As we all know, the European Union does not have strong powers in this area. We are there to provide support, coordination, but I think that there is a geopolitical dimension to this and this ties in with some things that were said by Vice President Suica and by our President here of the Committee of the Regions. If we look at what's happening in Ukraine and the east of Europe, the whole issue of misinformation which started way before the war from Putin, but not just Putin, the lack of understanding of the EU, lack of knowledge about the EU and really about democracy in general. This is something that puts us really on the back foot when it comes to our adversaries. If we look at how the world is now, we've entered into this new phase with the democracies set off against autocracies and I think that of course the first thing with democracy is empowering all our citizens therefore need to sufficiently understand just how one lives in a democracy, how one acts in a democracy, how with empowered citizenship you cannot in order to face up to all of these threats and also to be able to act in a world which is a globalised, interdependent where the most significant challenges are transnational in nature, security and defence of course but also there's climate change which was maybe more important in the past although it's still relevant now but it's been overtaken by events in Ukraine also inequalities, migration, all of these are transnational challenges. Therefore education on citizenship has to be a multi-level form of education because the governance, the democracy is multinational it's local, it's regional, it's national and transnational and in that respect what we have been doing and here I appreciate what was said by the Vice President of the European Commission and I know that she's taken note of our opinion and the work that's been done and the conference on the future of Europe but also as the President of the Committee of the Regions has said we need to be more ambitious in this field our impression and in the opinion before the recommendations we carry out a diagnosis analysis of the situation and we see that there are many initiatives of ASMIS Plus as Vice President mentioned financing different citizenship projects and the programme for schools but nonetheless despite that I think we're caught in this paradigm of an exchange of best practices and funding of individual projects okay maybe a fairly high number of projects but they are fairly scattered, fairly piecemeal and what we really identify pinpointed in our opinion is the need to move to a more systemic approach to one where we look at the structural impact and I think they are the main idea and this is not something that should be done in an office by a Eurocrat this is a collective effort all of us have to get involved all of us who have responsibilities in their education not just the states in many countries the regions that have this responsibility, this competence but collectively we have to take this project forward so that Member States can then implement all of this as the Vice President said in respect of subsidiarity and of course we have a slight dilemma in this respect and just how with this initiative can we ensure that as many people as possible that everybody can benefit from this I think we all have a shared destiny and therefore and we know that European citizenship is recognised in the treaty therefore we have to really have the inspiration that everybody, all European children have access to this education it's a strategic and geopolitical question as I said at the outset but I think it would be highly regrettable if we were to have Member States that were to decide to take this approach whether it's not I really don't think that that makes sense and what would happen as well if we were to have one Member State who wanted to take this the other way round with the citizenship education I mean we'll all recall a Polish minister who said that they wanted schools in Poland to explain that the EU was an oppressor and was creating a new form of Soviet Union so we have to make sure that it's addressed the right way round and not abused or misused in that way we have to make sure that this education is available to all children across the European Union on many occasions here we've talked about the democratic deficit of the European Union democratic deficit looking at the powers of the institutions the council and it's true that we need to reinforce that and many ideas have come out from the conference on the future of Europe but I think even before we go into the question of the democratic deficit there is this shortfall in terms or deficit in terms of understanding knowledge of the European Union and education and there are other possibilities I think which we could explore and implement you don't need to necessarily change the treaty but we have the curriculum proposals but we could also develop a European citizenship strategy education citizenship and develop a framework of competences and skills in this area we've got competency frameworks in other areas and science and all the other subject areas of the curriculum but not in the area of citizenship and I don't want to go on at too much length but maybe I could just end with one final thought the EU has programmes the Solidarity Corps the Erasmus programme different training and mobility programmes that are offered to young people with EU funding but I think we could also take advantage as Vice President has said if we were to take a more systemic and structural approach and we were to take more seriously this citizenship education target so people who benefit from these training mobility programmes it would be good if they were required as part of this training if they were to be required to follow a citizenship module I think with that we would really be able to reach a much broader audience a massive audience and not just as I said have financing of individual projects and a best exchange of practices thank you Thank you very much the floor now to Inge Siben the associate professor from the Tilburg University Yes, thank you and thank you for inviting me here to talk about one of the projects financed by the European Union I'm the coordinator of an Erasmus Plus project E-value and together with my colleagues from Tilburg University and also from partner universities in Belgium, Netherlands, Slovakia and Turkey we are working on European values education and the driver for this project actually is the need for citizenship education and as mentioned already this is voiced by local, regional, national European authorities and has already led to changes in curricula in many countries but still we observe and also this is backed up by research we find that schools find it difficult to implement these curriculum changes and also teachers are struggling to teach about controversial issues so in the project we have developed teaching materials and interactive tools on five contemporary themes and democracy is one of them and it's crucial to note that this is all based on scientific insights so we have data from the European value study and other surveys to show pupils the opinions of people in Europe and we can also link it to theoretical and scientific debates and one of them is the cultural backlash debate and I think this is crucial because you are talking about engaging old generations in the citizenship education which is very important but what we see in research is that especially the younger cohorts they are having a somewhat lower level of democratic values so if you ask them about democracy they are older generations and especially the middle generation the baby boomers or people born in the 50s and 60s they have higher democratic values and the younger generations and that makes it crucial to focus indeed on the young generation as well so you can see here this graph which is ongoing research that we do so I will briefly discuss the tools that we developed and then discuss and explain how this can foster European education European value education and also democratic values so the first tool we developed you can all find it on as of Europeanvalues.eu it's working on your mobile so you can go there and what you can do is create your own maps based on data from the European value study but also European social service and welfare study and it will show you the public opinion on important topics for example we have a map showing the importance of having a country ruled democratically and you can see that there are differences between countries and you can also compare maps so we have here a map on the left for young people and on the right for older people and again you can see that older people find this a little bit more important than younger people and this is an interactive tool that students like this very much to play with it then the teacher can create a classroom and then students can answer survey questions themselves for example on this question how important do you think it is to be ruled democratically or how much trust how much confidence do you have in parliament and by doing this they position themselves they say what their own opinion is and they will in the class they can show it in such a graph your own position the position of the students is anonymous but it will foster some discussion and some thinking about why do I position myself in this way how do I relate to others and that is also a way to do it you can also do it to compare different classes so in a digital exchange to bring up discussion and again you can compare it to the public opinions of people in Europe and also maybe different groups young old men women high educated low educated finally we have a lot of teaching materials developed and we also provide then theoretical background reports to help students and teachers to explain the differences or the patterns that we see in these values one of these elements is that we also have an Atlas of European values a physical book that has also these explanations in that and we will present it on Europe Day 9 in Brussels the first copy will be handed over there okay I also wanted to stress that what is important is two things in values education we focus on values clarification which means that students know that there are a variety of possible and that there are patterns in this as well so there are similarities and differences and how do these differences come about that's one part and the second part is values communication which means for students to understand where do I stand what is my position and what are my arguments for this position and both things really help to foster democratic values because we focus this on research so not only social research on explaining the differences but also pedagogical insights and these show us that some strategies are more effective than other strategies for example an open classroom climate is crucial and if we pick strategies that foster this open climate and that also research shows increases students appreciation of conflict which means that they appreciate different opinions and that is crucial in democracy we have different opinions, we argue why we have these opinions and then we come to the best solution and it also shows that it increases political participation for example voting behaviour so if you pick the right strategies you can increase democratic values that's it for now thank you very much and I have to admit this is an outstanding work and I also want to congratulate you professor but also director of your university our former member and good friend of mine Vin Van Den Donk who really has done an outstanding work in the university but also here in the committee of regions so dear colleagues we will now move to our debate and we will open the floor to our members and we will start with Emil Bock from the EPP Mr President the Vice President of the European Commission Adam Schweitzer dear colleagues the EPP strongly support education as a key political priority of the European Union the future of our European project depends to a large extent on quality investment in education also we need a highly quality inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe education is an investment with long term benefits education is the key to get out of poverty and to get access to prosperity education has a major role in promoting and defending democracy we have to take our democracy very seriously to teach it to debate it to improve it and last but not least to defend it democracy can be destroyed from the outside but from the inside too by populist and demagogues education it's a vaccine for populist intolerance racist violence and fake news education must equip all young people with skills and aptitudes not only for employment but also for a democratic way of life I do support so much the citizen proposes on the conference on the future of Europe about integrating soft skills in all the courses in the curriculum schools listening to each other encouraging dialogue understanding respect and appreciation for the others critical thinking, self study remaining curious result orientated the EPP strongly support the implementation of the European education area by 2025 the digital education action plan and the European strategy for universities as key factors to promote education and democratic values in Europe thank you Mr President thank you Prime Minister I would like to give the floor now to Jelena thank you very much Mr President and the dear Vice President Suisse and other guest members and I'm really pleased and honored to address you in this debate and one more I want to also thank you for the support of the work of the Committee of Regions but also as your outstanding advocacy towards the role of the sub-national of the government in decision making process of the European Union and also working with the conference of the future it's impressive but today's debate goes beyond policies it's about politics and also about the fundamentals of our people's feeling that being a part of a community that starts locally but also grows up to reaching Europe and the world beyond it and I believe that the mindful exercise of the citizenship is above all based on the feeling of the ownership and trust trust is a key word but also awareness of its own role in society and we could see that from the professor showing how important that is to be a part of a society and also to forge a strong community in European society we need to make that in a way that education meets more and more the needs of the labour market and I would like to say that the pandemic and now the war has made Europe rethink about moving back a lot of industries and research and other things from other parts of the world but we also need to have the skilled trained people and skilling, reskilling and upskilling that's really a model of lifelong learning and it starts at early ages but it never ends but it also helps defining themselves as responsible self-oriented citizens who contribute to the well-being of the communities through a productive life but I would also say that digital and green transitions are also oriented in such sense and I would also like to mention the growing sense of uncertainty between young people about the directions that life would take and there has been a global shift I think we all agree and you showed us that so we really have to put all this together and I think that the pandemic has taught us some lessons I think this war has taught us more but I think that together working on these values and also other things that we can do together is crucial so I'm going to stop there and thank you so much for your attention Thank you so much Peter Kaiser please Thank you President Ladies and gentlemen the situation is even more dramatic than we realised and since the 1990s there has been a rolling back of democracy in many countries and we have good reason to be worried about decay and decline we have to of course encourage more prosperity, peace and we have to make sure that this spreads democracy is not self-evident we have to work for it we have to defend it where it is in jeopardy and we have to hand it on to the next generation I know that in interest in democracy begins earliest years as children we have to use schools and other such institutions in order to promote democracy education is the crucial to develop democratic structures and values we have to be aware of this education in the EU has to be accessible to all it has to be a factor which is inclusive which works for integrity and including all we will not be able to defend our democracy if we don't do this I think democracy is a life long process democracy will always have to face various challenges we've heard about some of them today I think that in particular the European citizenship education will be a very crucial component for any future development in our democracy we have to take what is common to us our values and we have to work on this democracy is made up of rights but also duties the European Union too has these rights and duties so it is essential that we develop this further we need to strengthen our European identity the debate yesterday on Ukraine showed us how democracy is worth defending as against other forms of government we have to work in this spirit we have to have democratic structures which inspire confidence and trust I would like to go into one more point which is very important to me and that is that pupils, students have to be regarded as the bearers of democracy for the next generation in my region Carinthia which is on the border with Slovenia and Italy we are the first region in the EU which in our constitution has laid down parliaments for young people they are to meet at least four times a year and they are meant to help young people develop democratic structures further I very much welcome that we are starting this initiative and I would like to appeal to others across all of the parties to take this task very seriously because this is a question of values for which many people have died I would now like to say that democracy is a daily combat let's start now thank you the floor now to Ulrike Landergrin thank you chair I would like to talk for the renew group education is the best way to increase democracy we all know that we have a deficit in democracy and there are fewer people who get engaged in political parties or a democratic institution between 0.5 to 1% of citizens are members of a political party we can't get the youth to engage why we always say that democracy has to be gained by every generation and have we taken responsibility for next generation there are very good examples on how local politicians are trying to engage educate young people in democracy we have youth municipality council where we propose changes and we also have youth dialogues and so on we have a long list in my municipality we have worked with youth council several years where the young people vote for proposals that they want us to carry through and every year we give them follow up it could be the quality of food in school it could be bus tickets it could be skate parks but you can't get everything and then you understand how the democracy works it's very important to have a follow up to the young people and we can also see the changes in our views and this yes it means more work for us politicians it demands more from us politicians but it rewards us a lot and thank you the representative from the university that you talk about this as a tool where you engage the young people so they actually participate this is how you understand democracy and this is what you do when you create a dialogue we have to be better in Europe many of you have said that we have to introduce European values in education in primary secondary at the university we always need to continue teach about European values it should be obvious but it isn't and we have to improve that in the conference of the European future we have listened and received many proposals from the young generation many very good concrete proposals and now it's time for us to show that we've actually listened to our citizens and our young people therefore I'd like to put you a question and the microphone gone the question is how are you going to follow up these proposals we have to create a fit for future and we're happy to participate in this floor now to Mr the floor now to Mr Bianchi please thank you very much President, Commissioner speakers we can't talk about promoting so called European values without reflecting on the real meaning of these values for our citizens we can't continue discussing how to promote to European citizenship without addressing the crucial question of European identity despite the fact that the founding fathers were very proud and aware of the values that unite the peoples of Europe today we are faced with a denial process that is turning against our culture promoting a very different set of values we have now arrived at a crucial point in a debate and I think I certainly believe that we have to base ourselves on the Greek, the Roman the Jewish, the Christian values of Europe we together are a mix of cultures, peoples and nations and we have to have united in diversity truly as our European motto and we have to move away from the centralized rhetoric that is imposing view on others that is a downward spiral we have to make sure that we educate all of our young people as was proposed in the conference on the future of Europe particularly in the working group that I was a member of but there is also a real need to have grass root projects that encourage exchanges between young people and ensure cohesion between the future generations of Europeans and rather than casting out our common traditions and our European identity we have to promote those and in fact the regions have the best instruments to do that ensuring that there is full respect of the principle of subsidiarity includes making sure that competences are properly distributed at national level and make sure that education which is something that is often at regional level is properly discussed that we have these discussions the local and regional authorities along with the competent national authorities I'd like to conclude by saying that promoting citizenship of the European Union can only happen with full respect of the member states and the local territories and it's only in being united in diversity that European citizens will be able to meet the challenges of the future and avoid divisions and the cultural erosion thank you Mr. McCarty please Thanks Mr. President dear Commissioner I'm not too sure if you're an ABBA fan or if you've had a chance to listen to the new album Voyage and in that particular album there's a song called Ode to Freedom and one of the lines goes I would like to think that freedom is more than just a word hand and lofty language Ode to Freedom often go unheard and I'd like to think that many Ode to Freedom have been front and centre of the working group and plenary debates in the conference of the future of Europe of which I'm one of the 30 representatives from here I think the 178 conference recommendations are rich with crucial ideas which need to be implemented are any recommendations where work is already ongoing within the European Commission that such work would actually be enhanced reference has been made to the democracy working group but there are references to citizen programs right across all nine working groups when you actually read the 178 proposed recommendations I would like to take the opportunity to refer to the work of the working group on education culture youth and sport in which I sit with two other members within the committee of the regions we have offered full support to the citizens' recommendations many of them tally and align thinking of the committee of the regions if you take cluster 1 for example established by 2025 an inclusive education European education area that's something that we completely agree with cluster 2 on addressing the specific needs of young people across all relevant policies we agree with that cluster 3 promoting a cultural exchange and faster European identity and European diversity through European exchanges promoting multilingualism European diversity promoting cultural professions we all agree with that and also cluster 4 sport is also really really important all four clusters just would be really important we are very very worried about the committee of the regions of what's going to happen to many of the 178 recommendations beyond this weekend because we regret the committee of the regions isn't a formal component so we are worried about how the bricks will evolve referring to your own analogy on the recommendations but I would like to think that the various working group recommendations would be taken forward with passionately and hope and such odds to freedom would not go unheard many thanks thank you very much Nina Rattilainen please from the greens thank you chairman thank you colleagues we have talked a lot about democracy and democracy is interactive when we give something knowledge and know how and the possibility to use this knowledge and know how we also get back one important thing here is the climate movement of the young people it was started in Europe and the young people said that they would not go to school if the climate issues are not solved many young people still do not go to school on Fridays because they think that their voice is not heard enough the recommendations of the conference on the future of Europe need to be implemented there is also a resolution by the parliament which is important citizens need and they have to be given information on the functioning of the European Union democracy means participation and it's important that this citizenship education is done by learning by doing so people are not only passive learners they also are active doers often when we teach and give information this information is very theoretical and these recommendations could also be implemented in practice where those who learn would be able to also do and create networks I would also like to talk about this horrible war that is going on yesterday we heard from the mayors in Ukraine how they are the shield of democracy and I think there is a lot of demand for European values now it's also important how people can promote these values further on behalf of the green group I would like to thank the reporters and everybody who is committed to these initiatives thank you very much thank you miss Fugeta please Mr. Bianco please Thank you President Thank you very much chairman three brief points I would very much like to thank all our illustrious speakers firstly I believe that it's the EU's priority in the area of education that we combat school dropouts in my country there is compulsory schooling until the age of 16 and for four terms of office I was mayor of Catania in the south of Italy it's an area where we have a lot of juvenile crime and a lot of school dropouts and I can confirm that where we have school dropouts if that figure is brought down then it automatically brings down as well the whole juvenile crime situation and I think through our efforts in that respect we have seen a major improvement secondly a civil education I think that is something that is absolutely essential in particular in countries where there is no civic education on the curriculum this has to be returned to make sure that people can play a full part in the community thirdly digital education with the growth in the ability to take part in things remotely online there are parts of the population in particular elderly people who are automatically excluded so we have to have specific instruments to make sure that there is proper online education and formal education for elderly people as well it's one minute the intervention and I will have to give the floor to the next colleague Miss Magyar please Mr. Annakur Bisto Shasso Mr. Shurayim President, commissioner ladies and gentlemen all EU member states are democratic and operate a democratic system based on their own traditions which is based on local and national elections I'm proud to say that Hungary does well in this respect elections are organized according to rules and young people turn up to vote in large numbers we can say the same of the conference of Europe and the accompanying events maybe it's not that well known but the largest number of these events were organized in Hungary with special attention to participation of young people this served us with the lesson that Hungarians are open to diversity and they find it very important to have sovereign states in place that cooperate and respect diversity this is what multiculturalism means to me respect for others traditions but sticking with our own ones Mr. Shurayim Mr. Shurayim please Mr. Olenekas Mr. Olenekas Dear Vice President President in addition to families it's schools that are best placed to educate our young people be it about history or art they are the best place to educate them on what it is to be European united in diversity and they need to teach young people that it is the diverse traditions that make Europe what it is we need a European Union that is built on traditions where countries retain their traditions and identities much in the same way as the founding fathers dreamed back then I come from Hungary and I'd like to ask for permission to respect the Hungarian legislation that protects children and also the idea that education is member states competence in the EU thank you Mr. Turg please Madam Mr. President dear colleagues thank you for your participation in the debate Education is a key instrument in promoting European democratic values and local authorities as the founder of the education institutions builds the foundations for active citizenship I would like to share some good practice examples from Croatia the country where I come from about introducing civic education in 2016 some of the European cities started introducing civic education in their schools developing critical thinking among their students it is an optional class but more and more students are taking it and we should also include the European values in this and we should actually build networks where we could share the ideas and teaching materials to promote this please Dear colleagues I believe it is very important to explain to young people what EU values and identity mean for all of us due to technology developments and programs such as Erasmus younger generations are more connected than they used to be but at the same time they often get stuck in echo chambers bubbles which merely reinforce the existing views that is by facilitating proper debates is essential in this context I would like to draw of your attention to the debate competition I co-organized with the help of the Committee of the Regions a little more than two weeks ago in my city of Pagesauces Hungary where students discussed sustainable economic development and the future of Europe the competition got read more than 120 participants divided in 28 teams coming from Romania who debated how to ensure economic growth by protecting the environment it was a hugg such as and I think we need to organize more events in the type across local authorities in the EU thank you Thank you Mr Marusic Dami Gospodo Ladies and gentlemen the European political system cannot function if the citizens don't know it they don't understand that the globalization European integration and the global hotspots demand that European citizens be engaged at various levels and to be able to integrate diversity into their everyday lives education is the building block of active and informed citizenship and of democratic participation by extension the will of the citizens has to form the future of the European Union including the participation solidarity and all the other values of progressive and dynamic European citizens we also want to promote sustainable growth and to promote peace and harmonic relations we would like to empower our citizens so that they can take full part in the society to decrease polarization in the society fake news which exert pressure on our democratic systems Miss Gilliland Miss Fugeta I come from the city of Potenza and I'd like to tell you about a project that we've had in my city in my region which is providing a high level quality of education on conflict promoting a culture of peace and we have been trying to ensure that we provide as much information as possible about peace in the classroom talking about concrete projects trying to share information about history, universal human rights and active citizenship and I think that this project really offers added value to the experience that we have in schools moving from theoretical to more practical hands on education thank you I would like to give floor now to Vice President Suica for her reaction Thank you very much President first of all I was listening carefully what you were saying here and it was really very very interesting and I want to thank you once again for your active engagement in this topic and for your active engagement in the conference on the future of Europe all over Europe on different levels be it at local, regional and even European level because I heard some of 30 of you who were active in the conference plenary and also in the working groups regarding active citizenship, regarding this curriculum I think this is the only proposal or recommendation which came from citizens which was totally consensual so from the very beginning at any conference any event which has to do with the conference on the future of Europe everybody was proposing and promoting European education, European citizenship even people from here from this country, from founding founding countries from Belgium, from Netherlands they said that their citizens don't differentiate between the names of institutions they don't know what is Council of Europe what is European Council what is European Commission I thought it is from the new member states but no it's not the case even here people don't differentiate that they don't know enough about European Union so what we, I'm sure although I'm not authorised to tell the results of our conference which will be promoted presented tomorrow and day after tomorrow I'm sure that this will be definitely one of the conclusions because we have to intervene in our education curriculum of course we have to also take into consideration that education is according to the treaty within the competence of member states does it mean that we have to change the treaty this is completely new issue I don't want to speculate now about that there were many questions among you what is follow up in fact this was the only question how are you going to follow up you know that we have very strict rules of procedure you know that we have joint declaration which is the basis of our work and in this joint declaration three presidents of three institutions at that time what citizens say now I speak on behalf of European Commission for us citizens are at the heart of the process and we will follow up what citizens said so all these proposals all these recommendations coming from working groups coming from multilingual digital platform which hasn't been mentioned today but was one of the important sources for the conclusions will be taken on board this is what I can say on behalf of European Commission but as you know this joint declaration also says that there should be consensus among three institutions and according to rules of procedure among four pillars which means parliament council commission and national parliament of course citizens should agree or disagree with what we will conclude I hope that nobody is crazy enough to go gain citizens proposals because the very reason why we organize this conference of the future of Europe was to come closer to citizens to listen to their needs to listen to their ideas to listen to their problems to listen to their daily concerns because I have to repeat this again there is a gap between us politicians policy makers and citizens and we wanted to narrow this gap and this is the reason why we are discussing with them and why we are promoting the liberative democracy of course participative democracy is important you are elected I was elected too on different levels so you are elected but in order to empower us in order to strengthen us we call citizens to tell us what they think what are their daily problems no one could have predicted at the beginning of this situation in 2019 nobody could have predicted that pandemic will come nobody could predict maybe this bloody war will come so things are or things have been changing so fast and we have to react to it this is the reason why I am all the time preaching that we have to make our democracy fit for the future it's not motto it's the fact it's something which is the core of this democratic society and the democratic society and that is what we want to be criticized so I really want to thank you very much we will follow up of course who is going to follow up three institutions according to their competencies this is what is said in joint declaration but so far as I see many of these proposals many of these recommendations will be facilitated we will be honest brokers in this process but of course council 27 member states are the most important part and of course our european parliament as our house of democracy so rest assured we will follow up and we will do what we can of course taking into consideration geopolitical context and everything what is going on at the very moment we are speaking now since we are contemporaries and something unprecedented which we had never I couldn't have imagined that this would happen on european soil believe me I come from the country where I experienced the war 31 years ago and I never believed that the war could happen on european soil but this is the fact which we have to take into consideration so thank you very much for your active participation thank you very much for your engagement I hope you will be in the end you will be satisfied also with your role of the committee of the region in this process and subsidiarity is definitely taken on board for sure thank you very much president for your engagement and for your help and for your pushing committee of the regions at the position where you deserve thank you very much thank you thank you president and thank you for all your help you have been a tremendous help for us and I better than anyone know that in very difficult times with difficult decisions and a lot of pressure from institutions and organizations you were there to stand up for us giving always the fight on our side and this shows as you rightfully said earlier at the beginning that once a mayor always a mayor thank you vice president the floor now to the member of the European Parliament Dominic Ruiz de Vesa thank you very much president Chichicosta once again and to all the members that took the floor and I was glad to see that there is a consensus I will say also in the committee of the regions on the importance of teaching about the European Union in schools I will say in a nutshell it's important that they know the origins of this project a peace project one of the members recall that the rights that the union offers there is a charter of fundamental rights we are citizens of the European Union not only citizens of our member states our obligations also it was mentioned by I think the opportunities that the EU offers to young people our citizens in general and the roles of the institutions this is also important we have heard so often particularly at the time if you remember of the euro crisis many people or many fellow citizens were blaming Europe for austerity or for things they were not happy with but what is Europe in a democratic system of accountability citizens have to be able to assign responsibility what's the role of the parliament what's the role of the commission what's the role of the council what's the role of the committee of the regions and so on so I think it's very clear we have a consensus on that what we are doing now and in this regard I'm happy Vice President Sricha is also supportive of this idea of the curriculum and it was very important when we look at what the citizens said as you also remember in the conference on the future of Europe because this was a total consensus there was no polemic about it and the recommendation of the citizens said almost literally that a minimum content on EU should be taught in all EU schools that was very clear recommendations so how do we go about it in the context of the treaty in the context of the national competencies one other of the recommendations which probably is very radical was to say in the field of citizenship education there has to be a shared competency between the EU and member states I'm in favour of that but I admit that this is really a radical step so this is why I think we can do much even before getting into such a proposal in the context of a treaty revision if we collectively agree on that minimum content that the citizens asked to be taught in the schools and then if we do that the majority of member states will follow so I think this is my takeaway and again I want to thank President Cicicostas for your leadership in this topic and vice president of the commission also and of course Professor Inge because I think today we are not just holding an event on this topic but we are starting a roadmap on this very critical field Thank you very much and finally last but not least our good friend our professor from Tullborg University you have the floor Professors Iben Thank you I very much like to hear that you are all supporting this curriculum changes and I would like to stress that even with curriculum changes it is still a challenge for schools and teachers to teach about this and I think we need there is a lot of knowledge out there about what are good teaching strategies in this respect and as you mentioned there are many Erasmus Plus projects, other projects which really dive into how to do it and this how to do it is also a crucial part so curriculum changes is the first step and then how to do it is the next one. Thank you Thank you very much This concludes our debate this morning and again many thanks to our panel and all of you who participated in this debate