On 23 and 24 June, CIVEX commission members met in Alimos, Greece in what was the first external meeting after a two-year break caused by the Covid pandemic.
During the two-day meeting and conference, members discussed topics such as Schengen Area Governance, hate speech, subnational climate diplomacy, migration and integration of migrants, as well as the territorial dimension of the follow-up of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
During this last debate, Cllr Declan McDonnell, Galway City Councilor and CoR's rapporteur on a permanent dialogue with citizens reiterated his call to the EU institutions to create a network that would manage citizen consultations and ensure feedback to citizens on their ideas. Such a network, said Cllr McDonnell, would be promoted and driven not by politicians but by people from culture, arts, sports and business.
Cllr McDonnell's opinion was adopted unanimously at the CoR plenary in October 2020.
