26-01-2010

Video-invitation: international conference "Europe 2020 - Civic Visions"

The international conference "Europe 2020 - Civic Visions", part of the "Interacting with the European Parliament" initiative, will be held in Sofia on January 29 and 30 (Friday and Saturday), 2010.

The conference venue is the "Grand Hotel Sofia" on Gurko Street 1 in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

We encourage you to contribute in one of the panels (see below) through sending us an email or through posting a comment in the forum before the conference's start.

The "Europe 2020 - Civic Visions" conference has three panels:

* Panel 1 – The European democracy – mission possible?
* Panel 2 - European cultural space and identity;
* Panel 3 - The solidarity in the EU – shared responsibility for development.

Here is a video-address to all readers by Mrs. Tihomira Trifonova from the Center for Policy Modernization, who will be moderating Panel 1.

Each panel will host participants, representing think-tanks, grass-root CSOs, the academia and MEPs and will be moderated by independent facilitators. The panel work will start with the presentations and continue with discussion and brainstorming. Each panel will result in a draft common concept on what Europe should look like in 2020 in the domains, related to the panel topic, including ideas about the ways and activities, through which the proposed goals could be achieved.
Those three concepts will be presented at the conference’s closing plenary session and, taking them together, we will try to summarize the civic viewpoints about the key development drivers of EU 2020.

A summary of all the contributions made by the participants before and during the conference will be included in an analytical publication, which will be disseminated among the key stakeholders on European level. The aim is to offer the institution representatives, the Members of the European Parliament in particular, an overview of the civic visions and expectations about Europe's future, which they could take into consideration in the EU policy-shaping.