On Wednesday 27 January, the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs discussed the modalities and objectives of the participation of citizens and civil society in the “Conference on the Future of Europe”, on the basis of a working document drawn up by the Germans Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL) and Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA).
In the spirit of the European Parliament, citizens’ agoras will be held regularly on central themes and will be expected to provide food for thought for the more institutional component of the Conference.
According to the working document, the agoras will be made up of citizens chosen randomly via their mobile phone number, with quotas to obtain representative panels according to age, geographical origin and social category.
Mr Scholz also wants to involve citizens of neighbouring third countries, such as the UK and the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as EU citizens living in these countries. Mr Domènec Ruiz Devesa (S&D, Spain) suggested that selected citizens should receive training in the functioning of the EU.
One of the major challenges of these citizens’ agoras will be to influence the work of the Conference, since citizens will not be empowered to decide.
“The possibility for the citizens to present their recommendations and a feedback loop to ensure they can react on the Conference outcome will ensure a strong connection between the outcome of the Conference and the work of the Citizens’ agoras, without however civil society actors, citizens’ councils and other stakeholders wielding any decision-making power”, argue the authors of the working paper.
Citizens’ agoras are “not an attempt to replace parliamentary legitimacy”, as decisions have to be taken by elected people, Freund stressed.
“If there is no impact, participants risk being extremely disappointed with the European idea and the way the EU works”, was however put forward by Niklas Nienaβ (Greens/EFA, Germany).
Asked by EUROPE about the European Commission’s action to overcome the deadlock linked to the governance of the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’, the European Commissioner in charge of the dossier, Dubravka Šuica, said she was open to all compromises, provided that work starts quickly. “If there is an agreement on a single chair, it’s fine for us. If not, co-presidencies are fine for us”, she said.
See the working document: http://bit.ly/3t3rMyg (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)