Future of Europe Conference: 325 final proposals to be delivered to institutions on 9 May; consensus and expectations for the reforms to be implemented

325 proposals were adopted by consensus by the members of the Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe. They will serve to achieve the 49 objectives identified in the 9 areas around which the debate revolved in this year of work. The proposals are a synthesis of the recommendations of the European Citizens’ Panels (178), the input given by the National Panels and events, and the 43,734 contributions recorded on the multilingual digital platform. The figures are provided by the European Parliament itself, which, among the three EU institutions involved, is the one that has worked the most to guarantee that citizens’ input “would remain at the centre of the deliberations” throughout the process. Parliament now calls for a revision of the Treaties: the request will be tabled during the plenary session that will begin in Strasbourg today, as the Co-Chair of the Conference Guy Verhofstadt announced a few days ago. As for the evaluation of the Conference, Parliament is divided: according to the EPP, the S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and the Left, “the draft proposals are a major political achievement” and the whole process has been “effective and democratic”. For MEPs representing the ID (nationalist) and ECR (conservative) Groups, by contrast, “the proposals do not reflect public opinion in the EU”. Citizens who contributed to the work expressed their strong approval of both the process and the proposals, Parliament informed in a statement, and are now “expecting the EU institutions and member states to ensure the appropriate follow-up” so that citizens are not let “down in the aftermath of this historic moment”. The next step will be the presentation of the final report of the Conference to the Presidents of the Council, Commission and Parliament at a ceremony in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Europe Day (9 May).
Valentina Bombelli