The Croatian Presidency of the EU Council “will spare no efforts” to reach a consensus among the Member States “as soon as possible” and “in securing an agreement with the other European institutions on a timing and manner of launching this Conference which is important for the long-term future of Europe”, assured the Croatian State Secretary for Relations with the European Parliament, Nikolina Brnjac, during a debate celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration on Thursday 14 May in the European Parliament.
Symbolically, the Conference on the Future of Europe should have commenced its work on Saturday 9 May in Dubrovnik. The Covid-19 pandemic has totally disrupted the political agenda at European level and makes citizens’ debates in physical form impossible.
In the EU Council, the latest Croatian compromise text dates from February (see EUROPE 12426/3). Latvia joined the letter initiated by Austria requesting a resumption of work. France is acting behind the scenes to ensure that discussions resume as soon as possible (see EUROPE 12482/24). The French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, indicated a desirable timetable for setting up the Conference on Monday 11 May during an exchange with the MEPs of the Contact Group: agreement in the General Affairs Council by the end of May, interinstitutional agreement in July under the German Presidency, inauguration of the Conference in September.
Outstanding issues for the EU Council remain the governance of the Conference and the level of ambition of this exercise. To put it bluntly: should we refrain from the outset from any treaty change that European citizens would demand during the debates?
Before the MEPs, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, said that the institution was working on the creation of a “multilingual digital platform open to all EU institutions” and which will make it possible to organise “online debates”. Nevertheless, “a digital-only solution cannot reach everyone, cannot replace face to face debates”, he admitted.
On behalf of the S&D group, Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, Spain) suggested renaming the initiative ‘Conference for Europe’s recovery and future’, in reference to the socio-economic impact of the pandemic. We need a successful conference to “move democracy with citizens”, argued Pascal Durand (Renew Europe, France). For Ska Keller (Greens/EFA, Germany), Europe needs a European recovery plan that guarantees socio-economic transformation without leaving anyone by the wayside. Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL, France), for her part, felt that the ‘corona debt’ was “neither legitimate nor repayable” and called for the big winners of the crisis, such as “Amazon, Carrefour and Sanofi”, to be made to contribute financially. As for Derk Jan Eppink (ECR, the Netherlands), he rejected any European state with a European army and debts. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)