Conference on the Future of Europe: civil society should take the lead

The upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe offers a unique opportunity for EU citizens to express their views on the direction of travel for the Union, particularly through the intermediary of civil society. A recently published LSE IDEAS report, ‘The Rise of Insurgent Europeanism’, discusses new visions of Europe emerging in civil society and what they mean for democracy and the European Union. In the report, Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz, Luke Cooper and Niccolò Milanese argue that the Eurozone and migration crises, Brexit and the pandemic have fundamentally changed the fabric of civil society in Europe and its attitudes towards the European project. In this blog, they explore these changes, consider their implications for the future of Europe, and formulate policy proposals to be discussed at the conference.