Digital Democracy and the first Transnational European Assembly on “End of Life Decisions and Palliative Care”: citizens and civil society organisations keep monitoring the Conference on the Future of Europe and push for an adequate follow-up
6 December 9.00 AM – 17:30 PM at the Economic and Social Committee, Rue Belliard, 99
In the aftermath of the followup event of the Conference on the Future of Europe organised by the EU institutions with the citizens involved in the citizens panels, the paneuropean movement EUMANS and the coalition Citizens Take Over Europe organise the first Transnational European Conference on topics related to human rights and individual freedoms, with the goal of picking up on recommendations from the citizens panels of the Conference on the Future of Europe. This Conference is the first step in working towards a permanent European Citizens’ Assembly (ECA), led by the citizens and civil society (see annex 1: blueprint for a permanent ECA), and will be followed by a series of such assemblies across the EU in 2023.
In the context of a one-day event titled ‘Digital Democracy is a human right” to be held at the Economic and Social Committee on the 6th of December from 9.00 AM to 5.30 PM, EUMANS and Citizens Take Over Europe will in particular follow up on the Recommendation 24 of the Conference of the Future of Europe (CoFoE): end of life decisions and palliative care in the European Union. The topics of Decisions on refusals of treatments and access to palliative care, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: legislations on voluntary death with medical support, Living Will and End of Life Decisions within and among different EU Member States will be discussed with a group of 52 citizens (some of them selected to a process of sortition coordinated by Agora Brussels).
The Transnational Assembly in particular will be held between 2.30 PM and 5.30 PM.
Whilst in the morning the focus will be an encounter between academics, activists for democracy, representatives of the EU Institutions which will focus on the use of digital technologies for strengthening democratic participation.
The co-president of EUMANS and Treasurer of Associazione Luca Cocioni, Marco Cappato, will be present at the Assembly as he is currently under trial for a new civil disobedience in Italy (annex 2).
Before the Assembly, members of the Citizens Take Over Europe Coalition, Michele Fiorillo (Civico), Virginia Fiume (EUMANS), Ulrike Liebert (European University Institute) and Ophelie Masson (European Alternatives) will promote the use of transnational European Assemblies as a permanent tool for participative democracy, will evaluate the follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe according to the 7 Recommendations of CTOE (annex 3) and will present a petition to the European Parliament regarding the lack of meaningful and swift follow up from all EU institutions on the recommendations of COFOE.
“The Conference on the Future of Europe has been an innovative, albeit fragile, process that included a digital platform for citizens participation and some embryonic experiments of sortition-based citizens panels. How this will be followed up can make the difference between a “nice experiment” and an important stepping stone for the democratization process of the European Union.”