Member States will coordinate their positions in advance of the preparation of recommendations to be presented to the plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe at the end of April. Once this unprecedented citizens’ consultation exercise has been finalised, they will consider these recommendations and the result of their reflection could lead to European Council conclusions at the end of June, under the French Presidency of the EU Council.
Launched in Strasbourg on 9 May 2021 (see EUROPE 12716/1), the Conference on the Future of Europe is expected to close exactly one year later in the same place, at a ceremony where the recommendations of the Conference will be addressed to the three Co-Presidents: Roberta Metsola for the European Parliament, Ursula von der Leyen for the Commission, and Clément Beaune for the Council of the EU.
The option of continuing the Conference after the French Presidency of the EU Council seems to have been discarded, although the initial duration of this initiative was 2 years.
According to a note from the French Presidency of the EU Council, these recommendations will be finalised at an additional General Assembly of the Conference on 29-30 April. On this occasion, the four components of the plenary (Commission, EU Council, European Parliament and national parliaments) will present a consolidated list of proposals on which they have reached consensus. This list will be submitted for validation to the 108 citizens who are members of the plenary assembly, who will be able to express their agreement or disapproval for each of the proposals, the French Presidency stresses. The outcome of this process will be the conclusions of the plenary assembly.
In the meantime, Member States are invited to coordinate. Their European Affairs Ministers will be invited to put forward some thematic priorities on the basis of the first recommendations of the four citizens’ panels, at their meeting on Tuesday 22 February in Brussels and their informal meeting on 4 March in Arles.
After 9 May, it will be up to the institutional trio - Parliament, EU Council and Commission - to decide on the measures that each institution wishes to take, in accordance with its competences, to follow up the conclusions of the Conference. In the EU Council, this will be the task of the General Affairs Council, which could prepare draft conclusions for adoption at the June European Council. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)