| SESSION | 3rd EU Macro-Regional Strategies Week Stakeholder Session |
| Session host | European House, Hungary |
| Session title | The citizens’ Shadow Report – an alternative positive voice |
| Time | 09:00-10:30 hours Wednesday, 9 March 2022 |
| Agenda | Opening Miklos BARABAS, European House, HungarySetting the scene by warm-up questions involving participants by the moderator Magda LESZCZYNA-RZUCIDLO, Baltic Institute of European and Regional Affairs, PolandPresentation of the Shadow Report Project idea, the rationale, the process and the results Miklos BARABAS, European House, HungaryReflections by project contributorsInterconnectedness and complementarity with EU macro-regional strategies Anders BERGSTRÖM, The Norden Association, Sweden A question from the audience: Youth dynamism with a bottom-up approach Stefano INGALLINA, Youth Section of the European Movement Italy A question from the audience – The value-added nature of citizens’ involvement – an institutional perspective Johan MAGNUSSON, DG Regio, Brussels A question from the audience: Does the citizens’ voice matter? Debate with focus on the suggestions of the Shadow Report moderated by Magda LESZCZYNA-RZUCIDLO, Baltic Institute of European and Regioal Affairs, PolandEnd of the debate. A brief summary Where do we go from here? – the best public places in the macro-regions Miklos BARABAS, European House, HungaryClosing |
| Concept of the session | The Shadow Report is a bottom-up citizens’ reflection document on the 3rd biennial Report on the implementation of EU macro-regional strategies issued by the European Commission in September 2020. It is not a direct political response, an analysis of the Commission’s evaluation document but rather a public response inspired by it. The work to produce the Shadow Report was undertaken by nine civil society organisations from AT, DE, DK, HU, IT, PL, RO, SI and SK, thus covering in a balanced manner the four macro-regions. A project team produced a questionnaire covering the following areas: The state of civil society in the four macro-regions Democracy and values; bottom-up approach, citizens’ ownership; partnership and participation; multilevel governance Meeting the citizens, human contacts, confidence-building; tourism Covid-19; solidarity; lessons learned; increased EU integration Youth involvement in macro-regional policies The Conference on the Future of Europe and its impact on the current legislative term for and by citizens Circular economy/sustainable development/Green Europe; visions for 2030Creativity/inventiveness/digitalisation/smart solutions Non-EU member states; the possibility of EU accessionCommunication / presenting macro-regional possibilities The questionnaire was broadly distributed and on the basis of responses received from citizens and their organisations from all the 19 macro-regional countries plus from 4 others a draft has been developed and further matured by in-person consultations in Mariager (DK) for the EUSBR, Budapest (HU) for the EUSDR, Palermo (IT) for the EUSAIR and an online one for the EUSALP. As a result, the text of the Report tries to avoid as much as possible the well-known „Place Schuman”-type jargon and reflects the style and language of citizens. The Report covers not only the proposed three main topics of the stakeholder’s session: youth, Green Deal and social innovation but its other chapters address such relevant areas as democracy and values, the pandemic situation or communication. This broad approach can raise the interest of many participants of the 3rd EUMRSWeek. Each chapter of the Shadow Report concludes with citizens’ forwarded concrete proposals. They are useful tools to demonstrate citizens’ commitment and contribution to the further advancement of EU macro-regional strategies. The project is co-funded by the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union. |
