The congress was officially opened by European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek, who spoke of the need not only of instruments to ensure the success of the European project, but the political will and the money to finance it. He emphasized the need for inter-parliamentary, not just intergovernmental, cooperation. "We must not engage in competition with national parliaments"  he told assembled federalists. Mr. Buzek also spoke of his regret that current interventionist operations in Libya were not being carried out under a European flag, despite the involvement of a number of member states. Mr. Buzek's speech was followed by a video address by Viviane Reding, Vice President of the European Commission, who used her address to the UEF congress to focus on the need to create a link between the institutions and its citizens. "Europe's raison d'être is to empower its people. Our proposals need to have real meaning for European citizens".

The first day of the UEF's three-day congress also included a public debate, moderated by Mr. Duff,  in which high-level MEPs Isabelle Durant, Andrey Kovatchev and Elmar Brok addressed the triple focus of the event : economic governance, security and defense policy and the European citizens initiative. Ms. Durant spoke of the need for coordination between member states in light of recent events on Europe's southern borders, saying "We wasted time because of a lack of decision at European level. She also proposed that the crisis in the nuclear energy industry meant that there must be a fully integrated energy supply market, with no national unilateralism on building new nuclear power stations. Mr. Kovatchev used his address to speak of the need for both medium and long-term vision in tackling Europe's economical imbalances, and for civil education about Europe in secondary schools. Mr. Brok, who left the summit of the European Council to be present at the congress, reported that the community method was finally again topical in the council. "After years of negotiating the treaties, including a common foreign policy, the European Union has a framework to act" but, he added "not the political will". The European Parliament had done well to drag the governments into accepting more of the Community approach to setting up the ESM. The discussion concluded that the decisions of the European Council were only the first step in a series of measures that would end up with a credible economic government.