For this first edition, the topic captured the essence of futurEU. It engaged students in a thought experiment about the EU of the future, by pitching a proposal of reform to its policies, institutions, competences or procedures.

There may not be a prospect of impending treaty reforms in the EU. However, our topic is a visionary scenario. Meaning, we encouraged CIVICA students & PhD researchers, to propose a reform for which they claim urgency. 

The choice of a broad topic was intentional. There is no right or wrong answer, and none of the possible suggestions can be too big or too small!

The 8 Semi-Finalist Teams

Selected by our judges from the Jacques Delors Centre Berlin,
eight Semi-Finalist Teams were selected to pitch their proposals at the Semi-Finals.

Their proposal

“How to match EU legislation with local realities”

A legally enshrined position for the Committee of Regions (CoR)

“The current pandemic reminds us once more of the fundamental importance of on-the-ground expertise for successful and credible policy making. To account for this fact in the EU’s institutional setup, we argue for a strengthening of the currently weak consultative mandate of the Committee of the Regions (CoR). Firstly, we propose to legally recognise the Committee’s participation in the pre-legislative Impact Assessment (IA) conducted by the European Commission (EC). Secondly, we suggest providing the CoR with the right to advise the European Parliament (EP) on taking legislative initiative. This two-tier reform implies an overdue formalisation of the Committee’s current activities. It is necessary to make EU policies more effective and to revive trust in its institutions.”

#Reform #Regions #Capacity #Trust