Slovenian Presidency of the Council of European Union 2021 said on Friday it invited the Western Balkan partners to attend as guests at the second Plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe on Saturday.

The statement added Slovenian State Secretary Gasper Dovzan would address the participants of the second Plenary session as Co-chair of the Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

„The Conference on the Future of Europe focuses on the content of interest to European citizens. They play a leading role in a broad debate on how the Union should be shaped in the future to meet their expectations,“ he said ahead of the meeting.

According to the statement, the Plenary will discuss for the first time citizens’ contributions who have previously attended the first meetings of the European Citizens’ Panels and citizens who have attended national panels and events in the member states or published on a multilingual platform.

With the participation of the citizens, the Conference Plenary would be an actual meeting with citizens and about citizens, the statement said.

„As the country holding the Presidency, we are particularly pleased that the Western Balkan partners will participate for the first time, as the European future is also their future,“ Dovzan added.

The Plenary is expected to exchange views on the messages of the European Citizens’ Panels, national panels and events and on the interim report on the multilingual digital platform.

In addition to representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission, 80 citizens’ representatives were selected from 800 European Citizens’ Panels, 27 panel and event representatives from member states, representatives of civil society, the European Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee and elected representatives of local authorities will also participate in the meeting.