The COVID-19 pandemic “only adds to the urgency” of launching “an in-depth reflection on how to be more effective and democratic” and the Conference on the Future of Europe, which should start “as soon as the opportunity arises”, is “the appropriate forum” for such a reflection, the European Parliament said in the resolution it adopted on Friday 17 April (see EUROPE 12469/2).
Prior to the health crisis, the timetable called for the European Union’s institutional triangle – European Commission, Parliament, Council of the EU – to adopt an inter-institutional declaration enabling the Conference to be launched on 9 May, potentially in Dubrovnik, Croatia, as suggested by the European Commissioner for Democracy, Dubravka Šuica.
Only the Member States have not been able to adopt a position on the modalities and themes of the Conference, and this situation prevents the start of negotiations on the inter-institutional declaration.
Several MEPs are concerned about this situation, but are aware that priorities have changed with the urgency of the health crisis.
On Thursday 16 April, the coordinators of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) – Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain), Pascal Durand (Renew Europe, France), Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany) – asked Committee chair Antonio Tajani to press the Council of the EU to do so.
“On May 9, 2020, an Interinstitutional Declaration should be signed by Parliament, Commission and Council” to enable the symbolic launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe, write the five MEPs. “That is why it is crucial that the Council define its political position”, they add, convinced that the launch of the Conference “will show our citizens, that eurosceptic political parties and populists do not deliver solutions”.
See the letter from the five AFCO coordinators: https://bit.ly/2zacT5V
On Friday, several MEPs from the ad hoc working party that worked on drafting the European Parliament's position on the Conference, including Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium), took a similar initiative by sending their own letter to European Parliament President David Sassoli.
On 9 May, the Presidents of the Commission, the Parliament and the European Council are expected to send “a common message” on the start of the Conference, Mr Freund told EUROPE.
Reacting to Ms Šuica’s recent statements in the Financial Times on the possible reorientation of the topics to be discussed at the Conference, the environmentalist elected representative advocated a debate on mutualisation of debt at the European level and hoped that the question of top candidates (‘Spitzenkandidaten’) would remain topical. “We cannot arrive at the 2024 European elections without knowing who we are voting for”, he said.
The Croatian Presidency of the EU Council had been contacted but had not yet replied on Friday. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)