Conference on the Future of Europe


The Conference on the Future of Europe is a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced in the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium to long term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to its policies and institutions. It is intended that the Conference should involve citizens, including a significant role for young people, civil society, and European institutions as equal partners and last for two years. It will be jointly organised by the European Parliament, the EU Council and the European Commission.

Timetable, expected outcome

In November 2019, in their "non-paper", French and German governments suggested the following rough time table:
They also outlined the expected outcome of tangible and concrete results: The Conference should commit itself already in the interinstitutional mandate to produce tangible and concrete results. The final document with recommendations should be presented to the EUCO for debate and implementation.

State of work, next steps, results, outcome

As of November/December 2019:
It has been suggested that Liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt should chair the Conference.

Involving citizens

The usual way of involving citizens in the EU is that of opinion surveys, citizens' consultations, talks and, since 2012, accepting petitions with proposals.
Since 1978 the EU considers opinions of citizens through the Eurobarometer surveys, like the 2018 one on the Future of Europe / Future of Europe .
Under the Barroso Commission debates with citizens took place, with fifty-one Citizens' Dialogues in EU countries. Followed by a final pan-European one in Brussels, with participants from all the cities that had organised a debate, and with the participation of the President of the Commission, the Commissioners and representatives of the European Parliament and with national and local politicians.
Since 2012 the formal instrument of European Citizens' Initiative , today rather a petition, allows EU citizens to present a proposal to the Commission.
Under the Juncker Commission the debates were announced in the White Paper on the Future of Europe of March 2017.
An online consultation on the Future of Europe was launched in May 2018, with a questionnaire of twelve questions, designed by a panel of ninety-six citizens,
giving "the opportunity to citizens to express their expectations, concerns and hopes".
Citizens' Dialogue conferences took place, involving the President of the Commission, the Commissioners and some staff members of the Commission,
"town-hall style debates carried out in line with Juncker's invitation to members of the College of Commissioners to be politically active in communicating the common agenda to citizens and listening to common concerns coming from them".
The 2019 Report on Citizens' Dialogue and Citizen's Consultation
was delivered to the "EU-27 leaders as material for reflection" for their EUCO Sibiu meeting of 9 May 2019.
Same as the Joint Report on European Citizens' Consultations, initiated by Emmanuel Macron, which took place from April to October 2018 at national level, as debates or other formats.
It remains to be seen, whether – during the upcoming debates of the Conference on the Future of Europe – more participation of citizens in EU matters arises from the promise of Ursula von der Leyen given at her candidate's speech: "I want citizens to have their say at a Conference on the Future of Europe... bring together citizens, including a significant role for young people, civil society, and European institutions as equal partners..."

Position of the European Commission

In her political guidelines, President-Elect Ursula von der Leyen described the Conference as follows:
In her "mission letters", which von der Leyen assigned the nominated Commissioners, three members of the new College of Commissioners were made responsible for the Conference on the Future of Europe: Věra Jourová, Maroš Šefčovič, and Dubravka Šuica. Whereas Šuica is primarily tasked with the preparation of the Conference in collaboration with the European Parliament, Jourová is designated to represent the Commission at the Conference. Šefčovič's main responsibility lies in the follow-up on the results of the Conference, which shall be undertaken jointly with the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament.

Position of the European Parliament

Working Group

On 16 October 2019, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament decided to set up a Working Group on the Conference on the Future of Europe. The Working Group is composed of one representative per political group in the European Parliament and one representative from the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, however, some in the Working Group are also in the AFCO.
It is tasked with preparing "a proposal on Parliament’s approach to the Conference on the Future of Europe, including, inter alia, the scope, the governance, the duration, the structure, the stakeholders, the objectives and the expected actions and outcome."

Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO)

In parallel to the sessions of the Working Group on the Future of Europe, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs is in a process of deliberation.
In November 2019, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs began their debate on how to shape the structure and scope of the Conference. How to involve citizens, representatives of civil society and national parliaments. How to foster a bottom-up approach, rather than a top-down one. On the involvement of citizens, some have underlined that the criteria for selection would be important in ensuring inclusive participation in respect of diversity and gender balance. On the possible topics of the Conference, the AFCO committee discussed the issue of the legislative initiative of Parliament, Council as a second chamber, the rule of law, qualified majority voting in Council, Spitzenkandidaten, transnational lists, economic governance, social policies, the transparency register, and an independent ethics body. On 9 December 2019, the AFCO committee submitted an opinion on the structure, working methods, and topics of the Conference.

Positions of the European Council

Conference announced

Even though the European Council has not communicated any common positions on the Conference on the Future of Europe yet, on 26 November 2019, it became public
that the French and German government have drawn up a "non-paper" on the Conference.

Media echo

The Franco-German announcement, on 26 November 2019, of the Conference on the Future of Europe has led to more widespread media coverage on the topic.
Politico observes that the Conference “would likely require the European Parliament to adopt a resolution on the process at its January plenary in Strasbourg. Given the huge scope of the effort, which could potentially lead to proposed changes to the EU treaties, Parliament is expected to wrestle a bit with the Commission and Council for control of how the process plays out."
Financial Times calls the Conference "one of the big projects for Ursula von der Leyen... Its goal is to make recommendations for new policies and institutional changes."
The Swiss NZZ concludes: "After all, a few days ago Berlin and Paris took up the idea of a Citizens' Conference on the Future of Europe which they advocated in a joint proposal. From 2020 to 2022, debates will begin first on the democratic functioning of the EU and then on all other controversial topics. An adaptation of the treaties as a consequence of this is explicitly not excluded. Many member states do not like to hear that. Treaty changes are complicated. Because, for example, all national parliaments have to agree. But perhaps the EU needs such a major overhaul."
Washington Post calls the Conference proposal "a trial balloon" which "brings together the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council" and that "France and Germany have signaled that they want ambitious reforms." Observing that "it’s possible that the E.U. may have learned in the meantime from national citizen assemblies like those... in Ireland." Further, that "of course, it’s not at all certain that the Conference’s proposals – or any proposals – can produce changes that win the support of all E.U. members... a major revision to the E.U. treaties would need the approval of 42 parliamentary chambers and up to 17 national courts. A referendum is effectively inevitable in Ireland and possible in 20 more E.U. members... Given the difficulties of securing approval, it is possible that Europe’s future does not lie in a general treaty change but, instead, in... treaties between subsets of E.U. members designed to deepen integration in specific policy areas."