Actively involved in the launch of the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’, several federalist MEPs from pro-European political groups in the European Parliament have been working on the outline and role of the Conference’s plenary session.
Paulo Rangel (EPP, Portugal), Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany), Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium), Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Helmut Scholz (The Left, Germany), who see their meeting following the tradition of the Crocodile Club in which Altiero Spinelli took part in the 1980s, believe that the plenary session should be made up, among other things, of 108 national MPs, 108 MEPs and 54 representatives of Member States.
The European Parliament is expected to defend the composition of the plenary session at the next meeting of the Conference’s Executive Committee, which will meet on Monday 3 May in the presence of French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune. The Executive Committee will also hold a meeting on Sunday 9 May in Strasbourg, just before the launch event for the Conference in the European Parliament hemicycle.
According to a preliminary compromise proposal from Verhofstadt’s office, a copy of which EUROPE has obtained, the Commission would get three seats, the European Committee of the Regions would get 20 seats, while the European Economic and Social Committee, social partners, and other civil society organisations would each get four seats.
Citizens’ participation in the plenary is still pending
The participation of European citizens, who will be chosen in a representative way to take part in the debate in three or four panels by spring 2022, has been more or less finalised (see EUROPE 12705/21).
Representatives from these panels are likely to present the results of their work, as they relate to the topics under discussion, in a plenary session. But will a citizens’ delegation be a full member of the plenary session and/or be able to participate in the plenary’s decisions? This point has not yet been finalised.
Another question for the Executive Committee to decide is whether the plenary session or the Executive Committee will have the final say on the interim report being made to the European Council in the spring of 2022.
According to Verhofstadt’s preliminary compromise proposal, the plenary session would draw up a list of recommendations on the basis of its own deliberations, the work of the citizens’ panels, and the ideas put forward on the dedicated digital platform (see EUROPE 12701/20). On the basis of this list, it would then be up to the Executive Committee to draw up a number of conclusions that would have to be approved by the four components of the plenary session (national MPs, MEPs, the Council of the EU, the European Commission) before they could be published.
On the side of the Member States, the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council is defending a position that gives the Executive Committee the final say on the conclusions drawn in the Conference. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)