There is no doubt that such proposals have gained visibility and support through the citizen-led Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). The main challenge now is to ensure that these reforms are implemented by the other Institutions in the new legislature. The overall picture does not need to be repeated here. It is well described in the report of the event on 24 January. There is a growing gap between resolutions of the European Parliament and the Commission approach. For example, the 2023 citizenship report published by the Commission on 6 December is a stocktaking exercise describing activities over the last three years arguing that at the end of its mandate it is inappropriate to put forward ideas for the future. There has not even been a public consultation on the report, a position ECIT is challenging on the basis of an earlier decision by the European Ombudsman.

Against this background and uncertainty as to how the European elections will affect the majorities in favour of reforms, this programme has the following objectives:

• persuade the EU to implement reforms already proposed to strengthen European Citizenship, which should be ring-fenced and supported;
• update for the new legislature a number of ECIT studies and proposals;
• reinstate the Cross-Party Group of MEPs on European Citizenship in the next European Parliament;
• focus on the issues of governance and resources which determine the ways in which the EU can actively support this unique transnational citizenship.