Because the vote every five years is not enough
The closeness of Europe to its citizens is one of the European Union's priorities during the EU Regions Week. But, does it mean that Europe was not close enough to its citizens before? Is the rising of the nationalists and populists which decided EU do something about it? And the most important question: how to do it?
Without a doubt, it's one of the most important challenges for the EU before the 2019 European elections. Europe tries to interest citizens with campaigns like "this time I'm voting," but that's not enough.
The politicians know that Cohesion and Regional policies are a strong tool to be closer to the citizens. Corina Creţu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, insisted on the fact that local actors have a big power to help Europe on this challenge because they are managing local projects which affect people directly.
However, if the EU wants to promote its actions, citizens need to know that those projects were financed by the European institutions. Therefore, communication is one of the most powerful tools to be more understandable to citizens.
Focus on the regions' and citizens' needs
Also, the EU funds should respond to regions' needs, and, as Corina Creţu said, regions are more able to understand those needs than capital cities like Brussels.
Karl–Heinz Lambertz, President of the European Committee of the Regions, declared that the EU should accept the fact that citizens are the judges of the EU's actions.
The citizen should be convinced "by his stomach, his head, and his heart," Mr. Lambertz said. And, against the nationalist movements, EU should convince to its value. Therefore, we can see that those nationalist movements from all other Europe can accelerate the reconciliation between Europe and citizens.
Citizens' dialogue as a part of the solution
The President of the European Committee of the Regions also said that citizen should feel like a part of European society. And for that, he thinks that we should speak more about the EU's achievements.
Maybe the people should have a European experience to understand what are EU’s issues. Citizens' dialogue is maybe a part of the solution, but it should have a concrete result.
During the EU Regions week conference Can Europe hear me? we saw a way to engage citizens. How? With meetings where they can share their own experiences in Europe in places to debate about the European Union's future.
Also, the EU needs to inject the power of changing local problem to young citizens. Because if we don’t listen to young people, how can we expect them to listen to us? Thanks to this work, it will be possible to give a human face to the European Union, which is the face of millions of citizens.
By Aurore Dessaigne (France)
