The Genoa European Citizens' Convention
How to relaunch the European project?

Saturday 3 - Sunday 4 December 2005

The UEF and its Italian branch, the Movimento Federalista Europeo (MFE), are organising a European Citizens' Convention, to take place in Genoa, Italy, on December 3-4. It will gather together the political forces and movements of civil society that want to counteract nationalism and to continue to strive for a better Europe.

The French and Dutch "NO" to the European Constitution opened a difficult phase for Europe, in which the forces of nationalism and populism, led by those who oppose the Constitution, are trying to bury forever, together with the project, the very idea that Europe needs a Constitution.

Despite this unfortunate intermission in the ratification process, the EU still needs a Constitution to face the challenges of its enlargement and of globalisation. The Genoa Citizens' Convention will debate how to relaunch the European constitutional process, and will also try to answer some of the crucial questions which our citizens face in their daily life.

- How can the EU speak with one voice to the rest of the world?
- How can it give an answer to the fears generated by the process of enlargement and of globalisation?
- How can Europe secure peace and development in the Mediterranean, in Africa and in the other poor countries?
- What can we Europeans do for the world's sustainable development?

By exchanging views between MEPs, MPs, political parties, trade unions, local authorities and others, pro-European forces will come together to pave the way for a better Constitution that would be approved by a large majority of EU citizens.

The Convention will draft a Manifesto for a United Europe, more open, democratic, effective, and closer to the wishes of its citizens. The meeting in Genoa is just a first step, and a further meeting of the Convention has already been scheduled for the June 2006, at the end of the Austrian presidency.

with the support of the European Commission