Listening, taking notes, Prime Minister Jean Castex continued, this Saturday, September 25 in Toulouse, in the pilgrims’ room of the Hôtel-Dieu, his conferences on the future of Europe launched in the ten -eight regions of France.

Lambda citizens met for three days around several themes supposed to be put into practice when France will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union (PFUE) from January 1 to June 30, 2022. Music teacher, police officer, social workers , baker, school teacher, reconversion engineer, a total of 56 people, drawn by lot in the 13 departments of the Occitanie region to work on a “more human, more social, more ecological” Europe.

Jean Castex, who had 20 minutes to answer many questions on: humanist and social values ​​of Europe, democracy and governance, ecology, environment, taxes on Gafam (the giants of the internet), etc., has especially been “confirmed” in the idea that the population knows only “little about Europe”.

“It is not the fault of the citizens, but of the institutions which do not communicate”, recognizes the Prime Minister who wishes to take enough advantage of the presidency of the Council of the EU to “progress on the idea of ​​a European minimum wage” . Debate relaunched at the end of 2020 by the directive on minimum wages of the European Commission. The questions, often relevant on the sovereignty of the European Union and its 27 Member States or on the harmonization of social policies, came from non-expert citizens. Initially, the corn sought by this cycle of conferences to which Jean Castex lends itself to show with pleasure. “The advantage of the method is precisely that you can express yourself with what you are,” he explains.

But for the citizens present, Europe is a distant country, the barrier of languages ​​in the first place and of cultures helping, it is there that however many aspirations converge. Lucie de Perpignan wishes to see “the creation of a common civil rights policy”, but for Laurent, from Saint-Chinian, “Europe is a nebula”, while Anne, from Montpellier, wonders “how Europe will make sure to welcome all migrants who flee their countries “.