On Wednesday 22 January, the European Commission presented its position on the modalities, themes and timetable for the Conference on the Future of Europe, leaving aside the governance of this initiative designed to engage in a two and a half year dialogue with citizens on the future of the European Union (see EUROPE 12407/10).
Building on the increasing turnout in the 2019 European elections, the European institution assures that this exercise cannot be just another attempt to simply give European citizens a voice, as the Conference must be followed by concrete actions and influence the legislative agenda at European level.
However, at this stage the Commission defers to the recommendations that will emerge from the discussions before deciding on the way forward.
“If the Conference says ‘we want treaty change’, we’re open", said Commissioner for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica, who will be monitoring the Conference on behalf of the Commission. According to the former MEP, this also applies if a majority of citizens are in favour of less Europe. But "the Council and the European Parliament have more say on this", she said.
According to Mrs Šuica, the fact that the Commission does not give an opinion on the governance of the Conference, and in particular on the steering committee for the day-to-day work that Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium) should preside over, does not mean that it disagrees with what the European Parliament is suggesting.
Moreover, how a representative panel of citizens will be constituted remains a mystery.
However, the Parliament, which needs an ally in the person of the Commission in order to have an influence on the Council during the forthcoming interinstitutional negotiations, would have liked a more assertive ambition.
After these announcements, the S&D group in the Parliament expressed some disappointment. Its president, Spain's Iratxe García, asked the European institution to be "more ambitious". "The Commission doesn’t elaborate on how that structured dialogue could take place, nor is it clear how to ensure discussions are followed up”, she said.
Within her group, it is felt that, while the EPP Group appoints its leader, the German Manfred Weber, to represent it in the steering group, it is up to her to represent the Social Democrats in the body intended to steer the work of the Conference on a day-to-day basis, if the architecture devised by Parliament is put in place (see EUROPE 12404/1, 12405/1).
On behalf of the Greens/EFA Group, the German Daniel Freund would have liked the Commission to have already made a clearer commitment to institutional reform.
At the EU Council on Wednesday, the Member States continued their discussions on the outlines of the Conference on the basis of a preparatory document from the Croatian Presidency. This non-paper received a "rather positive" opinion, according to a diplomatic source, notably on the major role to be given to citizens, equal treatment between European institutions and the place to be reserved for national parliaments and civil society.
On the other hand, the Member States remain divided on the question of institutional reform. The Croatian Presidency hopes to reach a common position at the General Affairs Council on Tuesday 28 January.
The Presidents of the Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council will discuss the organisation of the Conference on the Future of Europe on Thursday 30 and Friday 31 January at Jean Monnet's house.
See Commission Communication: http://bit.ly/38n2Si6 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)