"This is a key event at a key moment. It gives the Council the right roadmap at the right moment." G?rard Onesta (European Parliament Vice-President) 

"It is a milestone in the way we can link Europe with the people... This is the first time a way was found to give a voice to citizens." Jean-Luc Dehaene (MEP and former Vice-Chairman of the Convention on the Future of Europe)

In order to make the results of the 27 National Citizens? Consultations relevant at European level, they needed to be synthesised into a single report taking into account the diversity of 27 different Member States, their concerns, wishes, hopes and expectation. These entered into the ?European Citizens? Perspective on the Future of Europe?.

The Synthesis Event was held in Brussels on the 9^th and 10^th of May. One citizen volunteer from each of the National Consultations participated, accompanied by the national project partners.

On May 9, citizens engaged into an intense debate about the 27 national results, supported by a team of facilitators and experts. In a joint effort, they substantiated these results and came up with a European Citizens? Perspective on the Future of Europe containing a global vision and recommendations to policy-makers.

During a press conference on the 10th of May, citizens officially presented their results to policy-makers in the European Parliament. Citizens handed over their results to Margot Wallstr?m (Vice-President of the European Commission), Jean-Luc Dehaene (MEP and former Vice-Chairman of the Convention on the Future of Europe) and G?rard Onesta (Vice-President of the European Parliament). The audience and journalists had the opportunity to ask citizens questions about their results and their personal experience at the events.

Later in the afternoon, citizens were joined by Margot Wallstr?m, Vice-President of the European Commission and responsible for ?Plan D?. Ms Wallstr?m sat together with the citizens in a roundtable and discussed their perspectives, the implications thereof and how they relate to current actions and initiatives at European level in the relevant fields.

Thus, the citizens? results fed directly into the political process immediately after they had been produced thereby avoiding that the impetus that had evolved over the past months waned.

The political implications of the results will be discussed on 6 June 2007 within the context of a special policy dialogue event organised in cooperation with the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels.