EU in the world

Report Overture to the Future: ACT I The organiser of the series of roundtable discussions Bled Strategic Forum in cooperation with the Center of European Perspective, opened the first debate titled "Young Voices on the Future of Europe", within the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe. The discussion took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ljubljana. While the panelists were physically present, the wider audience was invited to join the discussion over the live stream, due to the epidemic situation. Students from all the Faculties in Ljubljana were invited to join the discussion online; over 70 students signed up to join the live stream, mostly students from the Faculty of Social Studies in Ljubljana, who were of ages ranging from 18 to 35. The video of the live stream, available on the official Facebook page of Bled Strategic Forum, had over 1,000 views (including all views for over 9 seconds). We are not able to identify the profiles of those who have viewed the video on Facebook. The main topics of the discussion were presented as; European values and how they should be asserted, building EU's crisis resilience mechanism, EU's stance on sovereignty and how to tackle issues such as; health, economic recovery with a model inclining towards a green and digital economy with security at the forefront, touching base on cybersecurity. For the start, Mr Gašper Dovžan, presented the Slovene priorities during the Presidency of the Council of EU. Mr Clément Beaune, presented the vision and the historic background of a European Union, firstly by pointing out the lessons the EU should learn from the current challenges to build a better future. Mentioned that during all the crises, the EU and its institutions have shown their ability to deliver results, which could be achieved with great difficulty at the national level. Pointing out that the greatest project for the EU should be at creating a sense of a common identity among its citizens, which is a prerequisite for realising all the other EU priorities. During the discussion, both speakers agreed that the EU is at a crucial moment, as it has found itself in the midst of many challenges. The EU and its institutions' primary focus should be at retaining the trust of its citizens and that the citizen's expectations should not be undermined. The launch of the platform at the Conference on the Future of Europe, has sparked an honest discussion among citizens who have placed expectations on the EU institutions to have their voice heard. The youth addressed the questions to both speakers in regards to their method of interaction in order to be more engaged in influencing the future of Europe. The following question was directed towards how the EU plans to enforce security and tackle challenges such as radicalisation. Another question brought up the debate about human rights and EU's plans towards LGBT rights and its stance on member states deviating from supporting such communities. The youth also expressed their concern on environmental issues related to climate change and how the EU plans to reach its future targets. Questions were addressed on how the EU will tackle challenges such as disinformation, integration issues in relation to ethnic and religious minorities, migration and EU efficiency at delivering results. The discussion concluded with the speakers offering the youth different methods of interaction in order for their voices and opinions to be implemented in the Future of Europe.