The transnational online Festival calling for a Citizens’ Conference on the Future of Europe

On the 9th of May we launch “Citizens Take Over Europe” presenting a jointly curated ‘online transnational festival’ where different organisations and artistic institutions have organised events open to citizens’ active participation. With “Citizens Take Over Europe” we are calling to join forces with citizens and civil society organisations from across Europe.

Some of the confirmed speakers for the day are Adam Tooze (historian), Sasha Waltz (choreographer and dancer), Ulrike Guérot and Kalypso Nicolaidis (political thinkers), Timothy Garton Ash (historian), Milo Rau (theatre director), Zoe Williams (The Guardian), Ute Scheub (journalist), Paul Dujardin (Directeur general du Palais des Beaux Arts), Cynthia Fleury and Markus Gabriel (philosophers), among many others.

The 9th of May will be the beginning of a long-term process. It is a call to join us in developing leadership from the bottom up, and to organise ourselves – citizens and civil society organisations – by means of our very own Citizens’ Conference in order to shape the Europe we want.

We are launching a coalition of European civil society organisations from across the continent that puts citizens at the center of the debate on our future. Together we want set out how we can recover from this health, social, economic and political crisis through solidarity and cooperation. We believe the millions of European citizens and residents that are currently directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemia see the direct impact of the lack of solidarity between European Member-states. We are convinced that Europe can change and become more democratic, free and equal, also through the bottom-up process we are inviting everyone to join on the 9th of May.