A private briefing exploring The Role of European Citizens in Shaping the EU Green Deal was held on Wednesday, 17 March 2021 from 14:00 to 15:15 CET.

This discussion featured :
Joe Elborn, Secretary General, European Youth Forum
Henriette Gleau, Policy Officer Sustainability Board, SGI Europe
Patrizia Heidegger, Director for Global Policies and Sustainability, European Environmental Bureau
Maxime Legrand, Secretary General of CEC Managers
Ludovic Voet, Confederal Secretary, ETUC

The coronavirus outbreak has inevitably put on hold many programmes and initiatives at the European level, while progress on others has slowed down. Nonetheless, the EU Green Deal and more broadly Europe’s climate strategies and targets have shown strong resilience. The three main institutions have actively committed to introducing legislation and long-term policies to fight climate change and support the green transition. 

As the EU Green Deal and its action plan unfold, questions remain about the role of Europe’s citizens, civil society organisations and social partners in shaping Europe’s future. As the EU Green Deal is also a societal, ambitious, project, citizens should be strongly connected to decision-making bodies and better understand the goals of this package of reforms and policy initiatives. What challenges does the European society face in changing its habits and consumer behaviours towards more sustainable patterns? How can the European institutions put people first and bring together citizens in the just and inclusive transition towards sustainability?

The event aimed to promote dialogue and information exchange on how the EU Green Deal can contribute to society taking into account the environmental, social and economic perspective. By bringing together the perspectives of senior stakeholders and leading political figures in those fields, panelists shared their views on how they can foster citizen engagement and social innovation in the above-mentioned areas of the European Green Deal.

We encourage participants to join the discussions on Twitter using the hashtag #EUGreenDeal. When tweeting, please use the handles @EMInternational, @Green_Europe, @CEC_Managers, @SGI_Europe, @etuc_ces and @Youth_Forum.

For more information regarding the European Movement International’s recent policy positions on this topic, please click here.