Conference on ‘The Citizens Right to know. Debate on Plan D’,7 June 2006

This conference was held on the eve of the European Council, June 2006, which was to review
the debate on the future of Europe. As foreseen in Plan D – launched in the autumn of 2005 the
Commission is now publishing an overview of the national and European debates which
have been held so far and on 10 May 2006 called for a citizens’ agenda for Europe.
The conference was intended to contribute to benchmarking the national and European contributions to Plan D. Is Plan “D” working? The original idea was greeted with scepticism and certainly the results so far are uneven with some countries making real and others hardly any efforts. But it would be wrong to dismiss the whole process. Some countries have interesting
projects and Plan D has encouraged interest in citizens’ panels and other initiatives,
examples of which will be presented at this event.