Cross-Party Group Of MEPs

Background

Over the past two years, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have participated regularly in ECIT and ‘Voters Without Borders’ events.

The participation of these MEPs has encouraged the ECIT Foundation — together with Europeans Throughout The World (ETTW) and New Europeans — to explore setting up a dedicated group of MEPs. In spring 2021, a memorandum with a questionnaire was sent to all MEPs, to which fourteen MEPs from different groups, committees and nationalities replied expressing interest in forming a group.

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The group is currently comprised of the following MEPs (party group, Member State):

  • Brando Benifei  (S&D, Italy)
  • Damian Boeselager  (Greens/EFA, Germany)
  • Fabio Massimo Castaldo  (Non-attached, Italy)
  • Maria da Graça Carvalho  (EPP, Portugal)
  • Domènec Ruiz Devesa  (S&D, Spain)
  • Daniel Freund  (Greens/EFA, Germany)
  • Sylvie Guillaume  (S&D, France)
  • Maria Manuel Leitão Marques  (S&D, Portugal)
  • Karen Melchior  (Renew Europe, Denmark)
  • Victor Negrescu  (S&D, Romania)
  • Maite Pagazaurtundúa  (Renew Europe, Spain)
  • Mikuláš Peksa  (Greens/EFA, Czechia)
  • Helmut Scholz  (GUE-NGL, Germany)
  • Yana Toom  (Renew Europe, Estonia)
  • István Ujhelyi  (S&D, Hungary)

The Cross-Party Group of MEPs has been formed around the following objectives, as defined by the MEPs:

  • To bring together MEPs from different committees to promote European Citizenship across all EU policies in the European Parliament, as well as other EU Institutions;
  • To share different political conceptions of European Citizenship, to encourage dialogue and greater consensus on its meaning (alongside more technical activities);
  • To provide a forum for debate on European Citizenship among elected representatives, and encourage dialogue with experts, academics and researchers outside of the European Parliament. Civil society organisations and foundations working on different aspects of European Citizenship can also bring issues to the group.
Read our proposal for enhancing the Cross-Party Group of MEPs (updated March 2023)
Check out the report from our last meeting on 4 July

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UPCOMING EVENTS OF THE CROSS-PARTY GROUP OF MEPS

The strategic programme of quarterly meetings for 2023

  • a second meeting around Europe Day (9 May) at the European University Institute in Florence;
  • a third meeting in early July, coinciding with the start of the Spanish Council Presidency, on the topic of political rights and the new EU electoral law;
  • a fourth and final meeting in 2023 in correspondence with the ECIT Annual Conference scheduled for 31 October 2023 — the anniversary date of the Maastricht Treaty.
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