The Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, and the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, discussed the modalities of the Conference on the Future of Europe on Wednesday 20 January in Brussels (see EUROPE 12638/13).
One of the issues discussed was the presidency of this pan-European citizens' consultation exercise, the launch of which is almost a year late.
According to our information, the idea of a collegial presidency - consisting of the presidents of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the political leader of the country holding the Presidency of the EU Council - is gaining ground.
An executive board will then be responsible for the day-to-day work. Each EU institution will appoint its own representatives.
The EU leaders want to overcome this obstacle related to the governance of the Conference so that the institutional trio can finalise and agree on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). On this basis, the Conference could be kicked off, probably in Strasbourg. Some believe that the date of 9 May, Europe Day, would be appropriate and gives sufficient time to roll back the Covid-19 pandemic through vaccination. Others believe that we need to move quickly to allow sufficient time for reflection on the future of Europe, which was initially supposed to last 2 years. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)