The Executive Committee of the Conference on the Future of Europe will discuss on Thursday 22 April the rules of procedure for the Conference’s plenary sessions and citizens’ panels.
A number of issues have yet to be decided by the political steering body of this pan-European consultation exercise, whose launch event will take place in Strasbourg at the European Parliament’s headquarters on Sunday 9 May, Europe Day.
In particular, the participants will try to decide on the composition of the plenary sessions of the Conference, in which representatives of all interested parties will participate. There seems to be an inter-institutional agreement that there will be as many representatives of the European Parliament as there are representatives of the national parliaments, a situation which would be in contrast to the Convention on the Future of Europe of 2002.
According to a proposal by Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium), co-chairman of the executive committee, of which EUROPE has a copy, the plenary of the Conference would be composed of 273 persons distributed as follows: 108 MEPs, 108 national MPs, 54 representatives of the Council of the EU (two per Member State), 3 representatives of the European Commission, plus 8 representatives of the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee.
The Belgian Liberal also suggests that 8 representatives from the citizens’ panels (including 3 young people under the age of 25) should participate in the plenary sessions according to the themes selected.
On Tuesday 20 April, the Parliamentary delegation agreed to increase the number of representatives per Member State to at least 4, in order to include representatives of the ruling majority and of the political opposition sitting in both national legislative chambers (where these exist). The Germans Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA) and Helmut Scholz (The Left) advocate a delegation of 6 people per country in order to leave each Member State the possibility of appointing representatives of sub-state entities.
France would propose that the plenary session be composed of 54 state representatives, 54 MEPs and 108 European citizens. Portugal would support the idea of appointing 2 representatives per Member State.
Giving citizens the right to vote?
A thorny issue, which may not be decided on Thursday, concerns the decision-making power of citizens on the recommendations that would be approved by the Conference plenary.
According to Verhofstadt, the decisions of the Conference will have to be supported by the ‘four pillars’ of the plenary session, namely the Council, the Commission, the Parliament and the national parliaments.
Some MEPs, such as Pascal Durand (Renew Europe, France), believe that citizens must have the opportunity not only to express themselves, but also to participate in decision-making. Otherwise, at the time of the interim review in spring 2022, the whole exercise risks being described as ‘excessively intricate’.
On the other hand, Mr Freund does not share the idea of granting citizens the right to vote. In his view, placing randomly selected citizens on an equal footing with elected MEPs carries the risk of weakening representative democracy.
Mr Verhofstadt proposed the establishment of a feedback mechanism to allow citizens’ panels to present the results of their work to the Conference plenary. And, once the plenary has drafted conclusions, these should be discussed with the citizens’ panels before adoption.
Author Yuval Noah Harari and singer Zaz as guest stars?
After presenting the conference platform (see EUROPE 12701/20) on Monday, the Executive Committee will discuss preparations for the launch event on 9 May on Thursday. Among the speakers expected in Strasbourg are the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, and the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Verhofstadt suggested that a personality from outside the political world should give a speech, putting forward the name of Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestseller Sapiens. In order to add a cultural touch to the event, discussions have reportedly been initiated with the French singer Zaz. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)