The inaugural plenary of the “Conference on the Future of Europe” took place in Strasbourg, in the building of the European Parliament, which moves there every month as part of its costly “traveling circus”. During the session, a number of so-called “citizens” and members of “civil society” intervened, to contribute to the debate of what supposedly constitutes the “future of Europe”
On this blog, we can EXCLUSIVELY reveal how many of these so-called “citizens” can hardly be described as randomly chosen people. Instead, a lot of them, appear to be “EU insiders”, people deeply involved in EU policy making, and often on the EU’s payroll.
An overview:
George Pagoulatos, Professor at Athens University of Economics and Business, as well as Visiting Professor at the College of Europe since 2006
Daniela Ioana Toutpati – academic at Brussels VUB university and “Understanding Europe Coordinator” of the “European Youth Parliament”
Silja Markkula, European Youth Forum
Gergana Passy, Founder and President of PanEuropa Bulgaria
Nikolai Boysen, European Youth Forum
Stephanie Hartung, Pulse of Europe
Francisco Aldecoa, political scientist, author of La Europa que viene: el tratado de Lisboa
Noelle O’Connell, ceo of European Movement Ireland
Martin Mrsa, Croatian Youth Association “Youth in the European Union”
Antonis Kourras, President of Cyprus Youth Council, which promotes “EU Youth Dialogue” on its website
Kristine Zonberga, European Citizens Initiative Ambassador, Latvia
Justinas Kulys, Policy Analyst at the European Economic and Social Committee
Kinga Joo, member at European Economic and Social Committee
Mandy Falzon, appointed by Maltese Europe Minister Helena Dalli as the designate Head of MEUSAC- the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC), first set up in 1999 to oversee the process of Malta’s accession to the European Union
Leverne Nijman, Dutch Youth Representative European Affairs, Dutch Youth Council
Elsie Gisslegård, an active member of the Swedish EU-federalist Centre Party
Regina Bastos, former Portugese MEP
Alina Bârgăoanu, Center for European Studies at Harvard (likely EU funded)
Ninni Norra, selected as Finland’s citizen representative, has served in the local council of the European Youth Parliament
Paola Severino, former Italian Justice Minister, serving under Italian PM Mario Monti, Italy’s favorite PM among eurocrats
Apart from these so-called “citizens”, there were also members supposedly representing “civil society”. Among these, there were representatives of the “European Movement International” and the “Union of European Federalists (UEF)”. Surely, receiving EU cash should disqualify any organisation to be presented as “civil society”, certainly in the context of an EU policy discussion.
This whole thing simply is a farce.
Real Conference on the Future of Europe 