The ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper) have been invited to approve, on Wednesday 3 March, the draft joint declaration setting out the objectives and modalities of the Conference on the Future of Europe submitted to them on Monday by the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12668/8).
The draft joint declaration, a copy of which has been obtained by EUROPE, asks the participants in this future citizens’ consultation exercise to “reach conclusions by spring 2022 so as to provide guidance on the future of Europe”.
The work was initially supposed to last 2 years, but France, which originated the initiative, wants concrete results under its Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2022.
A co-presidency of the institutional trio - European Parliament, Commission, Council of the EU - is also planned for all of the Conference’s new governance, overriding the Parliament’s wish that Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium) preside over the work.
The EU must “respond to the concerns and ambitions of its citizens” on the environmental and digital transitions, on resilience to crises, especially health crises, and on the social contract, the draft declaration says. The institutional trio guarantees that it will follow up on the Conference’s “ recommendations”, particularly through a specific feedback mechanism in full respect of institutional competences and the principle of subsidiarity enshrined in the Treaties.
See the draft joint declaration: http://bit.ly/2NXZO7k (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)