In the wake of European elections next may I organized a panel discussion about the future of the EU. Key was to book a room from the university 2 month in advance. After I searched for Email contacts of the different most important parties and their local offices and representatives. I wrote to different Members of European Parliament of my city and other parties.

None of the people I asked directly confirmed, but almost everybody forwarded my request and sent a replacement. So in a short while I had 7 confirmed guests and one professor from the Institute of Political Sciences, I knew from before. It was a little hustle to get the technical support of the University to book and get more microphones, but in the end everything worked perfectly.

Then I made a list with addresses and Facebook groups to post the official invitation. Different local NGOs associated with Europe, all parties, Student groups and of course also send it to all local radio, TV stations and Newspapers. Most didn’t reply, but I got the event being announced in the local newspaper. You could of course also do flyers and posters, but in this case I didn’t, too much costs and work.

For the big day I got some water and presents for every guest and of course was early to check all the technical equipment. Also I sent a draft program and the invitation to all invited guests, so they knew, what was coming. In the end we had a nice lively discussion with 6 parties and one professor and questions of the audience at the end.

At least 50 people attended, which was not bad. I wished for more and for media coverage, but unfortunately this didn’t happen. The topic was Reform of the EU and different steps as: EU army, the right to create laws for the EP and a true European government. You could say that surprisingly all attending parties agreed on these important steps, because nobody wanted to be ‘the anti-european’.