Dr. Catherine Day:

I thank the Chairman. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the committee today. It is very important that we find a way to discuss the future of the EU with our citizens and especially to listen to how they would like to see the EU develop in the coming years. Brexit has shown us all how much we have to gain from our membership of the EU but it has also revealed how little people understand about how it works in practice. Of course, the EU will need to change and adapt as it tackles future challenges and it is clear it will only be able to do so effectively if it carries the majority of citizens with it. It is clear to everybody that Brexit has shown us the perils of citizen detachment and disillusion.

Having said that, it will not be easy to arrange an EU-wide series of debates and even harder to find the common threads between the different national and regional debates. As Professor Fabrini said, this will have to be done in a time of pandemic, which has the effect of hampering face-to-face meetings. However, the fact that most people are now used to working and communicating online may offer a way to reach more people if we can get the model right. I am currently chairing the Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality, and we have moved it online to be able to continue our work. I would be happy to share some of that experience this morning, if that might be useful.

I have provided a written statement and I would like to summarise some of the points in it, and in particular to respond to some of the questions indicated for discussion today. First, we have already had some very active citizens dialogues in Ireland. They provided rich feedback, which is still valid today, so we should build on them. As many citizens as possible should be encouraged to participate in this coming debate. One of the advantages of doing the consultation online is that the physical limits on meeting spaces and travelling to meetings no longer apply. Many webinars now host well over 1,000 attendees in different locations.

Turning to what the conference should focus on, in my view, we need to reverse the previous ways of doing this. Previously, decisions were prepared in long meetings of official representatives and the outcome was then put to the people, who were asked to endorse it. This time, the EU should try hard to first reach out to its citizens and to listen to them. Ideally, the output of the conference would be clear guidance to decision makers on what the citizens of the EU see as priorities for future EU action, where they do not want to see the EU involved and an indication of where citizens are open to change or willing to compromise on the status quoto get the EU to where they want it to be.

To try to deliver useful results, the conference needs both a pan-EU dimension and a way of reflecting national differences. For the pan-EU part, a list of topics for discussion across all member states could be agreed at EU level, and we know France and Germany have suggested their list. Then each country could add additional points to reflect its own particular take on the EU.

The exact format of the debate should be left to each member state to decide. As I have just mentioned, here in Ireland, we have been developing citizens’ assemblies as a way of testing the views of our citizens, but in other countries they do things differently. To give a valid reflection across Europe, it will be important to allow room for national customs and practices.

I feel very strongly that the debate should be guided by substance and that processes and procedures should take a back seat. Treaty change is an instrument to enable the EU to act in certain areas, but as I have said, I think we first need to listen to citizens about what more - or less - integration they want to see in the future. Then we need to check and see whether the things they say they want can actually be accommodated within the existing treaties, and if not, only then should treaty change be considered. I say this for two reasons, first, because I think any focus on treaty change from the start would give a bureaucratic impression of the purpose of the Conference on the Future of Europe and would inevitably be seen as yet another project of the Brussels elites. Moreover, I think it would be very difficult to get treaty change ratified in all 27 member states in any realistic timeframe. This is because we have changes of government very regularly across the EU and because there is a tendency to see referendums as judgments on the government of the day rather than on the issues that underpin them.

National parliaments could play their role through participating in national and regional discussions and providing information on EU topics, because they are best placed to be able to put EU issues into the national context. Once the national debate has concluded, national parliaments could again help to explain the views of their fellow citizens to other parliaments, other member states and the EU institutions.

In my view, citizens’ recommendations could be decided by simple majority voting during the national debates. Once the recommendations have been gathered, they could be presented in a report to the steering group of the conference. Governments and national parliaments should have the opportunity in parallel to indicate which of their citizens' recommendations they support and to explain if there are recommendations they do not support. In the end, the outcome of the process will be decided by the Council and European Parliament, and in some cases through referendum in different member states, but the citizens’ influence should have a strong bearing on the future direction of policy.

I hope that the planned conference will help to spark a new debate about the EU and bring more citizen buy-in and support for future developments. If, in the end, the outcome is a set of recommendations that require treaty change, then we know we will have a referendum here. That in itself should be a strong motive for Ireland to invest in the process and to ensure that our population will be ready to engage fully in whatever next steps the EU will decide to take.