EFC representatives participated in the European Commission’s conference “EU citizens' rights: the way forward” which took place in Brussels on 1-2 July 2010. The Conference aimed to assess the concrete obstacles Union citizens face in their daily lives, with particular attention to obstacles which citizens still encounter when trying to use their rights across national borders, and to identify possible solutions to remove these obstacles.
Discussions were structured around four panel debates focusing on the following topics:
- Eliminating obstacles – how to make citizens' rights a concrete reality
- Enhancing the democratic life of the Union
- Consular protection - how to guarantee better safeguards for EU citizens abroad
- Free movement – the challenges ahead
High-level speakers included the Vice President and Commissioner for Justice Ms Viviane Reding and the Belgian Minister of Justice Mr Stefaan De Clerck.
The contributions received in the context of the public consultation launched by the European Commission in the first half of the year issue to identify the key barriers and challenges that remain for the full effectiveness of the rights stemming from EU citizenship, notably in cross-border situations, and look for concrete actions to be adopted to tackle them[1] informed the debate and served to highlight a number of cross cutting issues raised by a broad range of stakeholders. EFC’s contribution to the consultation is available at http://www.efc.be/EUAdvocacy/Documents/2010_EUCitizensRights_EFCContribution.pdf
The Commission has launched several surveys, mapping out citizens' concrete experiences in terms of intra-EU mobility.
The conclusions of the consultation exercises and the conference will inform the preparation of the Communication on Union Citizenship, to be issued in October 2010, in which the Commission will set out the measures that it will take to enhance citizenship of the Union, along with a roadmap for the adoption of those measures. The report is meant to cover the most important obstacles citizens are facing in the EU during their lifecycle, whether as residents in another country, people who want to marry or get divorced, as students, as tourists, as consumers who want to buy a product from another EU Member States via the Internet, or as people who want to exercise their right to vote in local or European Parliament elections. It will also include the 12 most important obstacles which the European Commission will tackle over the next two years. The Citizenship Report will just be the beginning. Legislative and enforcement action are expected to follow swiftly afterwards.
In addition, the new European Commission Directorate-General for Justice July 2010 was also an important moment as it is the date that the European Commission created, by a decision proposed by President Barroso to the College of 27 Commissioners, its own Directorate-General for Justice, which is managed separately from the Commission's Home Affairs policies. According to Ms Reding this is an important policy signal from the Commission and a recognition of the importance of EU policies in the area of Justice. The European Commission also announced that a website gathering all information about consular protection will be launched before the end of this year.
More information on the conference is available on the Commission’s dedicated website http://www.eucitizenship-conference.net or from EFC secretariat at eu@efc.be