The work of the Civil Society Convention is structured around 5 thematic clusters that are coordinated by member organisations in the Steering Committee, these clusters work on outputs that will be presented and discussed in the plenary sessions of the Convention. By the end of the institutional process of CoFoE the thematic clusters will produce reports that will be combined and with a joint preamble be presented and sent to decision makers, media and civil society all around Europe. 

Each of the thematic clusters of the CSO Convention will have its own working group(s) that will meet several times throughout the next twelve months to support the work of the cluster chairs, organise the consultations with the constituencies of the members of the convention and finally develop the output on the topic. Each member of the CSO Convention can apply with representatives to all of the working groups. Please find below a shprt description of each thematic cluster:

The fight against climate change and environmental challenges, chaired by Green 10: The cluster will focus on the fight against  climate change and environmental challenges such as how to make sure that the EU will become carbon neutral and tackle the climate crisis internally and as a global player, halt biodiversity loss and restore nature, ensure a zero-pollution environment, reduce our resource use and safeguard environmental democracy. Our recommendations will be closely linked to the opportunities created around the European Green Deal without the EGD limiting the scope of the discussions.The cluster may give specific attention to how the EU’s policies and practices to fight climate change and environmental challenges impact on the situation in the candidate countries and its neighbourhood, as well as globally. This could include:  addressing climate change, protecting biodiversity and restoring nature, ensuring sustainable food systems, curbing pollution and reducing resource use as well as safeguarding environmental democracy and rule of law.

Social Europe, chaired by SOLIDAR: The cluster will be organised in sub working groups which will lead to a comprehensive set of proposals contributing to the overall CSOs’ vision for the future of European democracy and the priorities for the EU. These will cover:1) a sustainable economic model: Fair and Progressive Taxation; 2) Equal opportunities: Quality Education, Training & Lifelong Learning; Gender Equality; Active Support to Employment; 3) Fair working conditions: Fair living wages; Social Dialogue and Involvement of Workers; 4) Social Protection: Childcare; Minimum income; Housing; Access to essential services; Health; Long-term care.

Europe’s digital transformation, chaired by ECAS: This cluster will contribute to bringing proposals that will feed into the EU’s priority of “A Europe fit for the digital age”. The ambition of this priority is to strengthen the EU’s digital sovereignty and set standards on data, technology, and infrastructure – with a clear focus on education, ethics, fundamental rights and European values. The deliberations will focus on the following topics: Digital Democracy, Digital Economy, Digital Education, Digital Safeguards and Digital Rights.

Our European Life  co-chaired by Volonteurope and CEV: Our focus will be on European rights and values, migration challenges (and opportunities), shrinking civic space, the EU’s role in the world, security, and sport. We will take European Rights and Values as a transversal frame and basis on which to reflect on these issues under the umbrella theme of “Our European Life” what it is – what it should be – and how to get there?

The Union’s democratic foundations, and how to strengthen democratic processes governing the European Union – To make Europe a citizens’ project (including the Rule of law), co-chaired by ALDA and Ecolise: Europe must be identified as a space of democracy and respect for human rights. They are pillars of our living together. Europe should be able to protect and invest on those values as key for any institutional development and progress.We will discuss the opportunities and difficulties of the current european institutional and political setting as for citizens engagement, dialogue and partnership; elaborate ideas for improvement of the consultations mechanisms; elaborate ways of overcoming the lack of trust being public institution and citizens and to unlock the potential of cooperation; sketch out innovative ideas for the EU governance based on citizens dialogue and democratic participatory  approach and on how to make EU a space of democracy and respect for human rights.