The first expert organisation that advised the EU institutions to use an online digital platform to engage as many citizens as possible during the Conference on the Future of Europe is now calling for the creation of a permanent mechanism of citizens consultation and participation. Europe’s People’s Forum, a network of professional citizen’s consultation partners in every member state, works to strengthen…
When you were a child, do you remember how it felt when one of your favourite Christmas presents was taken away from you? Well that’s how many will feel for many on 31 December when free movement between the UK and the EU comes to an end, For millions of Britons and EU citizens, the gift of free movement gave them the choice to live in…
On 9 May 2020, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, New Europeans launched an appeal for an ‘International Conference on the Lessons Learned by the EU after Coronavirus’, with the aim of paving the way to a European Health Union, writes Roger Casale. Six months later, it is fair to say that both objectives are somehow…
In a landmark case, the UK Court of Appeal has ruled that EU citizens with pre-settled status can access welfare benefits on an equal basis with other claimants. The test case was brought on behalf of two Romanian nationals, Ms Fratila and Mr Tanase who came to the UK in 2014 and 2019 respectively. In…
British MPs have called for more clarity for EU students about their status in the UK. The UK government has said that it wants to continue to attract high numbers of EU students to the UK in the future. Yet as MPs learned at a meeting called by the All-Party Parliamentary group on Citizens Rights, many EU…
“Don’t leave Belarus alone!” That was the message of a conference organised by New Europeans with human rights campaigners from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia to mark International Democracy Day, 15 September, writes Roger Casale. In a moving address from her home outside Minsk, Olga Zubrilova, explained how she had become involved in the democratic movement…
The true scale of the death toll due to the corona virus in Northern Italy may never be known but it has already far out-stripped the capacity of the regional authorities to be able to respond to the crisis. In the city of Bergamo, the local mayor Giorgio Gori has said that “many of the elderly…
As EU leaders prepare to put the finishing touches to their plans for a two year conference on the Future of Europe, civil society groups are mobilising to set up a parallel series of events aimed at putting citizens at the heart of the debate. A Future of Europe Fringe, modelled on the experience of…
Like Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival, civil society should occupy the influential fringe of European politics says a prominent EU civil rights campaigner. Former Labour MP Roger Casale, who heads up civil rights organisation New Europeans, made the calls at Volonteurope’s annual conference attended by leading civil society organisations. He said: “Like Edinburgh’s Fringe festival which has…
