MEMO/01/417
Brussels, 5 december 2001
Information note on actions taken by the
Commission for the public debate on the Future of
Europe
The Futurum website is a multilingual forum where all parties concerned and
any member of the general public can make their contribution to the debate
on the future of the European Union. The number of hits has increased
steadily and now exceeds 300 000 visitors a week. The Laeken Council is
expected to make provision for an operational link between the public debate
on the future of the EU and the work of the Convention. The Futurum site will
be the common centre of reference for all these debates and discussions,
and will provide the raw material from which conclusions will be drawn
Timed at just a few days short of the Laeken European Council, this note gives brief
details of action taken by the Commission to stimulate the European dimension of
the public debate on the Future of Europe, as the Commission undertook to do in
April 20011. The Göteborg European Council urged the Member States to continue
the debate, which had been set in motion by the Nice Declaration on improved
preparations for future institutional reform.
Direct participation in the debate
1. Over recent months, the President and Members of the Commission have made
frequent contributions to the debate, at both national level (in the course of
meetings/debates with the public, and meetings with the authorities) and at
European level (giving keynote speeches and taking part in webchats and discussion
forums with the public on the Internet). They have also taken an active role in the
media, which is most people's main source of information on Europe. Thanks to
moves made by the President of the Commission, public television channels have
been alerted as to the important role they can play in encouraging debate on the
future of Europe.
A shared debating chamber: the Futurum website
2. The Commission has developed the Futurum website2. On 7 March 2001, when
the debate was formally opened, the Presidents of the European institutions said
they wanted the Futurum website to
become a point of reference for all the contributions to the debate, where all
contributions would be readily accessible to all interested parties: the media and,
more especially, the people of Europe.
Futurum is therefore in effect a shared European debating chamber. It is used widely
by all interested parties (e.g. representatives of politics, academic life, the socioeconomic environment, NGOs and civil society).
1
Com(2001)178 final of 25 April 2001: Communication on certain arrangements for the debate on
the Future of the European Union.
2
http://www.europa.eu.int/futurum see Annex 1.
The website provides links to public initiatives associated with the debate in the
Member States and in the applicant countries. There are growing links with civil
society. The Internet is being widely used to provide, at European level, a shared,
multilingual area of reference and to provide input to the work of the politicians.
3. Thanks in part to the direct and greatly appreciated involvement of a number of
political figures (Mr Barnier, Mrs Fontaine and, shortly, Mr Michel), and thanks to the
ease of access to a growing number of contributions in the various Community
languages, the Futurum website has registered a steadily growing number of hits,
and is now running at more than 300 000 visitors per week3. More than 2 600
messages and individual contributions have been exchanged on this "citizen's
forum".
As to the substance of the contributions, Futurum receives a large number of pleas
for cultural diversity to be upheld to counter the perceived European threat of
peoples being deprived of their identity. There are also contributions urging the
defence and promotion of common values, mobility for young people, and calling for
Europe to be given the resources to play an active role and speak with a single voice
in the world, more particularly as a counterweight to the United States. There have
also been calls for an inspirational European project and a strong demand for
information and communication on Europe, as well as severe criticism of the "lack of
closeness". Fears have also been voiced as to the consequences of EU
enlargement.
4. Mention should also be made of the substantial amount of expertise and money
needed to translate most of the texts and documents and make them accessible on
Futurum in the various Community languages. This is vital if the debate is to have a
truly European dimension and be open to all the people of Europe.
5. The Commission feels that the arrangements made for Futurum will secure the
shared space available for the open network (forum), and that this will feed into the
Convention work.
Additional consultation and analysis work
6. The Commission has encouraged academic interests to contribute to the debate
by making a more in-depth study of themes associated with the future of the
European Union. A conference on "Europe 2004, the great debate" was held in
Brussels in October under the aegis of the Jean Monnet action network 4. The
outcome of the various working sessions is already available electronically.
7. The Commission has set about analysing public opinion, and the results supply
information and other material to fuel the debate. They give a detailed analysis of
people's attitudes to, and expectations of, the European Union. In addition to regular
data from the Eurobarometer surveys, the following studies are available on Europa5:
a study on young Europeans in 2001; a flash survey of the post-referendum situation
in Ireland; a qualitative study of people's perceptions of the European Union.
Information on people's perceptions of enlargement has also been collected.
3
See the statistics in Annex 2.
Cf. on the Europa server :
4
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg10/university/post_nice/index_en.html
5 http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg10/epo/polls.html
8. The Commission conducted wide-ranging consultations of young people, in the
form of round-table discussions, in preparing the White Paper on Youth 6. This
exercise underlined the importance of helping and encouraging people to take an
active part in democratic life and in the process of European integration. The debate
on the Future of Europe will provide an opportunity to turn good intentions into facts.
The Commission has already indicated that it intends to encourage networks of
young people to provide their input to the debate.
A look at the national debates
9. The Commission has found that an extremely wide range of approaches and
methods are being used to encourage debate in the various Member States. Only
some have, at this stage, taken significant action, and only a few have extended the
debate beyond narrow political interests and the press. Wherever the debate has
broadened to take in the public at large, this has in itself had a substantial
educational value in terms of telling people about the European project. The
participation of European political personalities has been very warmly received.
The main contributions to the national debates are themselves available on Futurum
(in the form of reports – one example being a high-level report produced in France –
and white papers, memoranda and focus documents).
6
http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/youth.html
Annex 1
Site Futurum sur EUROPA : http://www.europa.eu.int/futurum
Informations
pratiques sur le
débat
Boite aux lettres :
futurum@cec.eu.int
Accès aux 10 autres versions
linguistiques communautaires
Flashs
d’actualité
Lien avec le site de
la présidence en
exercice
Liens avec les sites
des pouvoirs
publics
nationaux
Etats membres et
candidats
Espace de
publication des
textes, documents et
discours des
gouvernements, des
parlements
nationaux et de
leurs membres
Accès au forum
citoyen :
Contributions
individuelles
avec participation
et réactions d’un
(ou plusieurs)
responsable
politique
sur les thèmes du
débat
Liens vers des sites
non gouvenementaux dédiés
au débat
Espace de
publication des
contributions des
institutions, organes
communautaires et
de leurs membres
Entrée directe pour insérer des
événements au calendrier du débat
Espace de publication des
contributions non
gouvernementales
Sem aines
12/nov
5/nov
29/oct
22/oct
08/oct
01/oct
24/sep
17/sep
10/sep
3/sep
27/août
20/août
13/août
6/août
30/juill
23/juill
16/juill
9/juill
2/juill
25/juin
18/juin
11/juin
4/juin
28/mai
21/mai
14/mai
7/mai
30/avril
23/avril
16/avril
9/avril
2/avril
26/mars
19/mars
12/mars
7/mars
Rapport statistique mensuel : 08/10-12/11/2001
Annex 2
N° de hits réels par semaine
expurgés .css
400000
350000
300000
250000
Hits
200000
150000
100000
50000
0