Making the Conference on the Future of Europe a Success

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED

Two years after French President Macron proposed a Conference on the Future of Europe, the then elected European Parliament gave its consent to the joint declaration on 4 March 2021. One week later, the presidents of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission signed the declaration and set the long-expected conference in motion. The EU institutions agreed on some key points: The conference will start on 9 May 2021 and should last until spring 2022. A joint presidency will oversee it, while a co-chaired executive board will be responsible for managing the conference and deciding the unresolved questions on which the three institutions could not reach agreement.

These unresolved questions include some very important aspects: The number of delegates to the conference is not defined. There is no agreement on how the deliberative citizens' panel will be organised. It remains for example unclear what the promise “to follow up on the recommendations made by the conference” will mean in practice. The European civil society lacks a forum to participate in the conference. The executive board must solve these issues as soon as possible as the timeframe is limited.

We will discuss the set-up of the upcoming conference and what needs to be done to make it a success story with Domènec Ruiz Devesa  MEP, Claire Mellier, independent researcher and Julian Plottka, IEP Berlin.

Contact: Marco.Schwarz(at)fes-europe.eu