22-10-2024
Following the recent United Nations Summit for the Future and in the context of the forthcoming hearings of Commissioners-designate, the Future Generations Initiative organised on 17 October an event at the European Parliament gathering civil society organisations and representatives from the European Institutions to provide them with an introduction to the concept of Future Generations.
The event was hosted by Lídia Pereira, MEP for Portugal, who welcomed the announcement of the appointment Commissioner-Designate for Intergenerational Fairness to represent Future Generations in this new parliamentary term.
The Future Generations Agenda and its Implementation
The panel discussion explored the concept of future generations through different lenses and was led by experts on this issue:
- Carlotta Garofalo, researcher at Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz and a collaborator of Generation Climate Europe, explained the crucial distinction that must be made between policies for young people and those for future generations.
- Neshan Gunasekera, Humanitarian Law and a Councillor at the World Future Council, demonstrated the growing importance of the legal concept of future generations and in particular the EU’s pioneering role in this area.
- Philip Löf, Future Generations Champion for the Future Generations Commissioner of Wales and Diplomat for the Welsh Government, shared reflections on how the EU could develop its approach to implementing the role of Intergenerational Fairness Commissioner.
A Message from the Future Generations Initiative
The discussion was followed by the presentation of the questions suggested by the Future Generations coalition for the hearings of the Commissioner-designate responsible for Intergenerational Fairness. The questions cover 4 main subjects: Children, Youth and Future Generations, Participatory Methods Representing Future Generations, Legal Status of Future Generations and Impact Assessment for Future Generations.
The event was a great success, demonstrating once again the growing interest and importance of the issue of future generations. It also highlighted that some EU Member States are already taking significant actions to protect the rights of future generations, pointing out that it is now time for the EU to follow suit.
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