The European Parliament political groups’ chairs discussed and took note of the conclusions of the working group on the Conference on the Future of Europe at their meeting in the Conference of Presidents on Thursday 19 December, which outlined the methodology, structure and timetable of the conference, but did not precisely agree on its chair and the structure of its executive coordination board or on the form that the Citizens' Agoras would take.
Of the three EU institutions, the European Parliament is the first to put forward concrete proposals, which EUROPE has obtained a copy of. Thus, according to the group's conclusions, the Conference should be a bottom-up exercise governed by a series of ad hoc bodies, including the Conference plenary, citizens' and youth agoras, and including the social partners, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR). On the other hand, it should be noted that local and regional elected representatives are not included. The reason for this is simple, we were told: they are already partly represented via the Committee of the Regions.
The two-year Conference will focus on European and fundamental values, institutional and democratic issues, climate change, social justice, fiscal and economic issues, the digital transformation, and even security, as well as the EU's place on the international stage.
The structures proposed by the working group are as follows: - the High Level Patronage, consisting of the Presidents of the three EU institutions, which will be responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the Conference; - the executive coordination board, under the leadership of the European Parliament, which would be responsible for coordinating the process; - the steering committee, which will be responsible for preparing the meetings of the plenary sessions, consisting of representatives of all the European Parliament political groups, the Council Presidencies and three Commissioners of the European Commission.
The plenary sessions are at the heart of the Conference. They will be held once every 3 months for 2 years. It will be attended by 135 MEPs, 27 EU Council ministers, two to four members of national parliaments, three Commissioners of the Commission, four EESC members, four CoR members and two members of the social partners.
Citizen agoras are also an essential part of the Conference. They will be grouped by topic and will include between 200 and 300 participants at most. They will be held at least twice throughout the process. An important point to note is that criteria should be defined to ensure that elected politicians, senior government officials, professional representatives of lobbies and NGOs cannot participate in agoras. Decisions within the agoras will be made by consensus by publishing minority opinions.
In addition, at least two youth agoras (16 and 25 years old) must be organised, with one at the beginning of the Conference and the other towards the end. This second agora will have exactly the same status as the citizens' agora.
The working group suggests starting the Conference on 9 May, which is Europe Day. The group chairs will adopt a provisional version of the resolution on 9 January. The European Parliament will adopt a resolution the following Wednesday at its plenary session.
The three great unknowns
There are still three great unknowns. First of all, the composition of the executive coordination board. Here, the working group has been deliberately vague. One of the big questions relates to the presidency. Renew Europe would like the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt to take the reins. However the S&D side would propose the Italian David Sassoli, who is the current President of the European Parliament, according to statements made by Iratxe García Pérez (see EUROPE 12392/2), while the EPP would prefer the Italian Antonio Tajani, the current Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO), who contributed to the conclusions of the working group.
The other great unknown is still the role assigned to citizen agoras. Some, especially on the left and among the Greens/EFA, fear that this agora will be confined to a mere consultative role, under pressure from the EPP and S&D in particular.
Finally, while the European Commission supports the European Parliament's initiative, the watchful eyes of the parliamentarians are turning to the Council, which may well unravel the European Parliament's position.
To read the working group's proposals: http://bit.ly/2Evz5Xw (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)