The second day of the 149th Plenary Session of the European Committee of the Regions started with a debate on the promotion of European democratic values through education to foster EU citizenship with the European Commissioner for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica, who is also in charge of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Speaking on behalf of the EA group, our president Kieran McCarthy expressed his strong support for citizens' recommendations in the area of Culture and Education. Cllr McCarthy, who was himself a member of the Conference's Working Group on Culture and Education highlighted that the recommendations of the Conference on the Future of Europe are rich with crucial ideas that need to be taken forward with positivity and hope. "As the CoR, we believe that local and regional authorities need to be involved in their follow-up," he concluded.
Speaking during the same debate, our CIVEX coordinator József Kóbor talked about the importance of organising proper debates on European values among young people to break the echo chambers they often close themselves in in the digital world. In this light, he talked about the debate competition he recently co-organised with the help of the Committee of the Regions in his city of Pécs, where students discussed sustainable economic development and the future of Europe. The competition gathered more than 120 participants, divided into 28 teams coming from Hungary and Romania who debated how to ensure economic growth while protecting the environment.
