The delay in starting work on the Conference on the Future of Europe is exasperating the pro-European groups in the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs. They criticise the inability of the EU Council to make proposals on who will chair the Conference and reiterate their position on this matter adopted in mid-January (see EUROPE 12405/1, 12404/1).
“EU citizens wait for us to translate the European solidarity we lived and the desire of the citizens for more Europe in the crisis into lasting political progress”, write ten MEPs, including Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain), Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium), Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany), in a letter sent on Tuesday 24 November to the presidents of the European Parliament and the political groups.
Taking the view that a further delay in the inauguration of the Conference will have a negative impact on citizens’ “confidence” in the Union, they ask David Sassoli to bring the interinstitutional negotiations on the joint declaration on which the work will be based to a successful conclusion.
The Parliament agreed on a candidate at the beginning of its mandate. Since the EU Council has not come up for a long time now with a position on the question of the chairmanship, (...) we suggest that the three institutions could assume Parliament’s proposal, which has the support of the political families representing a broad political majority”, say the authors.
In mid-January, Parliament had recommended the creation of a steering group for the work of the Conference, composed of representatives of the EPP, S&D and Renew Europe groups as well as the EU Council and the Commission, with a specific coordinating role given to Guy Verhofstadt, making him the de facto Chair of the Conference.
But the personality of Mr Verhofstadt does not enjoy unanimous support among the Member States. Questioned on Thursday 26 November by EUROPE about the possibility of former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt chairing the conference, according to information relayed by Politico, two MEPs pointed out that the Danish Socialist comes from a country outside the euro area and is frugal from a budgetary point of view. Nevertheless, one of them said that while the Franco-German proposal still had to be tested with the Member States, the launch of the Conference's work was more important than an institutional battle over its presidency. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)