Is the European Union the far and cold body often depicted with its long corridors, blue-grey meeting rooms with interpretation boots, formal speeches and boring lines to takes that fuel the administrative machinery every day ?
Probably yes, partly, but it is only up to us to make it a lively, people-centric place; to make sure that European politicians remain strongly rooted in the real life; to make sure that technocrats do not forget a basic fact: the life within international organisations does not reflect properly the challenge faced by most of the people across Europe. EU regulations are not designed for the EU bubble but for the 450 million people in their diversity.
With Voice of Europe we have a reasonable ambition: make sure that Brussels, Strasbourg or Luxembourg where thousands of pages of regulations are drafted, impacting the daily life of Europe, are designed having in mind permanently one compass: the EU citizens. No conference, no long seminar or colloquium at the menu. Just exchanges formal and informal, around a table or a drink between citizens, politicians and decision-makers with always a multi-cultural dimension, a starting point – people’s expectations – and a principle – no preconceived idea.
Getting to know each others and acting together in the same direction are the first steps on the way to a common destiny as Europeans.