The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has established a High-Level Group on Democracy to accompany its work on the Conference on the Future of Europe. The Group will be chaired by former President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, and it brings together politicians with high-level experience on EU affairs.

Representing the Renew Europe CoR is Androulla Vassiliou, former European Commissioner for Health and later for Culture, Education and Youth, as well as former ELDR Vice-President (2001-2006). Vassiliou looks forward to the bottom-up approach of the Conference on the Future of Europe, and said:

“Having participated in the Convention on the Future of Europe in 2001-2002, I am looking forward to this Conference because of its bottom-up approach. Citizens expect the EU to meet their expectations which requires understanding well what those expectations are, and local and regional representatives are ideally placed to convey the views and interests of the citizens because of their proximity to them. I am therefore delighted to be part of the CoR’s High-Level Group.”

Members of the Group have already also expressed interest in developing interactions with young local and regional politicians, for which the Young Elected Politicians (YEP) programme will be an ideal platform.

The formal and political launch of the High-Level Group will take place during the CoR’s May plenary session (5-7 May), together with a political debate on the CoR’s perspective for the Future of Europe and it’s participation in the forthcoming Conference on the Future of Europe.

Full composition of this Group is:

Herman Van ROMPUY (Chair) – Former Prime Minister of Belgium, President of the National Parliament and President of the European Council
Joaquín ALMUNIA – Former European Commissioner
Tomasz Grzegorz GROSSE – Professor, University of Warsaw
Rebecca HARMS – Former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) 
Silja MARKKULA – President, European Youth Forum
Maria João RODRIGUES – Former Minister and MEP
Androulla VASSILIOU – Former European Commissioner, former ELDR Vice-President

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