Cities as collaborators on European Democracy? The voice of Eurocities in the Conference on the Future of Europe

Deliberation on the future of the Union is on an all-time high. In light of recent spurges of disintegration, the European Commission has, in close collaboration with the European Parliament and the Council, initiated a conference on the Future of Europe to encourage citizen engagement with the future of the Union. Sub-national actors are seen as an important connector between citizens and EU institutions as they claim to be in close proximity to citizens. The proposed paper addresses how sub-state actors react to the grand debates on the functioning of the EU by taking Eurocities as an example of a network of sub-state actors. Eurocities has expressed interests in the Conference on the Future of Europe since the preparatory phases in line with one of the network’s focus areas, citizen engagement. More specifically, Eurocities aims to advocate the value of local authorities in EU policy making through the involvement in the conference, arguing that “city leaders are the closest level of government to people” . The authors ask the question “How do European cities, connected in Eurocities, contribute to the Conference on the Future of Europe?”. The paper aims at examining an area of possible Europeanization under the radar, by studying Transnational Municipal Networks such as Eurocities as possible collaborators of European Democracy. The paper will ultimately contribute to two streams of literature. First, it will further the vast literature on European (dis)integration by exploring the voice and role of cities in discussions on European democracy, shedding light on an under-researched type of actor in European studies. Second, the paper will contribute to the studies of Transnational Municipal Networks by introducing the Conference on the Future of Europe as an innovative research venue.