The co-chairs of the Executive Committee reached an agreement on Friday 7 May on the composition and role of the plenary assembly of the Conference on the Future of Europe. This agreement will have to be transcribed into the Conference’s rules of procedure, which the Executive Board will formally approve on Sunday 9 May, the day of the Conference’s official launch event at the European Parliament’s seat in Strasbourg.
The negotiations, which had intensified the day before (see EUROPE 12714/14), were stalled over the exact role of the Conference plenary and, in particular, its involvement in deciding on the recommendations to be made to EU leaders in spring 2022.
According to Parliament negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, “despite strong resistance from the Council and the Commission”, the Parliament defended a “firm position” and “managed to include a strong role for the plenary in the decision-making process for the Conference’s conclusions”, since “the report of the executive board will be based on proposals approved by the plenary”, according to a report on the negotiations.
The plenary assembly will debate the proposals from the citizens’ panels and the digital platform (see EUROPE 12701/20). On a consensual basis (support of at least the representatives of Parliament, the EU Council, the European Commission, the national parliaments), it will forward its proposals to the Executive Board, the Conference’s political steering body. If a position is expressed that clearly differs from that of the citizens, this should be expressed in the Executive Board’s report.
Acting by consensus, the Executive Board will prepare a report in full cooperation with the plenary and in full transparency. It will present the final outcome of the Conference to the Presidents of the Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of the EU, who will co-chair the Conference. It is then up to the EU institutions to quickly consider the follow-up to the final report, each within its own sphere of competence.
For the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, nothing has changed: the Executive Board will have the final say on the Conference’s recommendations. In Parliament, a source welcomed the progress made in the face of threats to cancel the launch event and hoped that the momentum would be such that the executive board would not be able to ignore the plenary’s requests. According to a second source, the plenary will not be “just talking shop”.
A plenary assembly composed of 433 members
The composition of the plenary assembly was also finalised. This will be composed as follows: 108 national MPs, 108 MEPs, 54 EU Council representatives, 3 European Commission representatives, 18 representatives from the Economic and Social Committee, 18 from the Committee of the Regions, 8 representatives from social partners, and 8 from civil society.
An important place will be reserved for citizens: 80 people from citizens’ panels, 27 from national events, and 1 from the European Youth Parliament. That is 108 citizens out of a total of 433 members.
Citizen participation was not a given. It is the result of an EU Council proposal, supported by the European Commission. Parliament was reluctant to do so, arguing that there was a conflict of legitimacy between representative and participatory democracy.
Launch on 9 May in Strasbourg
The agreement on the Conference’s rules of procedure clears the horizon and facilitates the holding of the launch event at Parliament’s Strasbourg seat, which has been unused since the outbreak of the pandemic in spring 2020.
As the health situation is not yet under control, physical presence will be minimal. On his return from Porto (see other news), French President Emmanuel Macron and the Conference Co-Chairs - Mr Sassoli, Ms von der Leyen, and Mr Costa - will deliver a speech.
Twenty-seven young Erasmus students (1 per country) will be in the Chamber, and online connections with citizens will be established.
The discussions will be accompanied by musical interludes performed by the Karski Quartet and the violinist Renaud Capuçon.
See the programme: https://bit.ly/3bczjDQ (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)