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Citizens’ Agora on "crisis and poverty" was organised by the European Parliament on 27 and 28 January 2011. It brought together the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the Members of the Economic and Social Committee (EESC), and Representatives of NGOs, who represented the organised civil society.
In this framework, for the first time, a consensus conference, in which European citizens in situation of precariousness participated, helped the non organised civil society to make it heard.
For this purpose, groups of citizens gathered in two-thirds of the Member States in order to debate on their personal situation in this period of economic, social and financial crisis. One or more participants per countries were invited in Brussels on 26, 27 and 28 January. This consensus conference allowed them to share their personal experiences and to express recommendations for other parties interested in Agora.
The reader will find below the report summarising the discussions between groups of citizens in the Member States, the PowerPoint for the presentation as well as the recommendations coming from the consensus conference.
The European Parliament regularly commissions surveys on public opinion in the Member States.
This is a means of keeping Parliament in touch with people's perceptions and expectations of its work and that of the European Union generally. The surveys are also extremely useful at the preparation, decision-making and evaluation stages of parliamentary business.
Readers will find them a source of information not only about attitudes in the EU to climate change or the current economic situation but also about how people see - and what they expect from - European elections, the European Parliament and European integration in general.