In this edition of U-Talk we have a question from Alexandra in Lyon:
“I sometimes feel that European citizens are left out of politics. How can we get more involved in the future?
The answer comes from Vivane Reding, Vice-President of the European Union:
“The citizens who feel that they’re left outside and that European politics is done in Brussels behind close doors are very many, and some of them are absolutely right.
“We should go out and we should be more near to the citizens because the Europe we are building is not the Europe for some politicians but it is the Europe of the 500 million citizens. And this is exactly why we have now developed the ‘European Year for Citizens’ and the first citizens’ dialogue took place in Cadiz, Spain.
There will be many Cadiz all over Europe in the next coming months and the next coming years and I hope that many citizens will participate because for the first we do not go to citizens and say: ‘We want your vote’. We go to citizens and we say: ‘We want your opinion, we want your participation’, ‘What is the Europe we should construct?’.
“Because this is your Europe, this is the Europe for the next generation, so we need to know what you want and that is exactly what has been exercised for the first time in Cadiz and what will be done all over Europe during the coming months and years.”
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