The Conference on the Future of Europe is finally official.
After months of delays, pandemic diversions and bickering between EU institutions over who should be in charge, the EU has officially approved its months-long examination of how the bloc should reform for coming generations.
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President David Sassoli and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa — whose country holds the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency — signed off on the plan for the conference, which is meant to give EU citizens a greater say in the bloc’s future.
In a ceremony held at the Parliament’s Brussels hemicycle, von der Leyen, Sassoli and Costa signed a “joint declaration” that will set up a “citizens-focused, bottom-up exercise for Europeans to have their say on what they expect from the European Union.” After signing the text, all three leaders stood up in silence while the European anthem played.
“It’s a special day for European democracy,” Sassoli said in remarks prior to the signing ceremony. “Finally, we’re off.”
The COVID-19 crisis “revealed that public opinion is more pro-European than ever,” he added. “What we know we have to do is now to establish the basis for a new European social contract.”
It was a sentiment each leader emphasized.
“This conference has to go beyond Brussels,” von der Leyen said. “We want to reach what some call the silent majority.”
The EU cannot “lose more time,” Costa added. “It’s time to deliver, it’s time to start building our future together.”
For now, the way the conference is meant to function is still vague.
The joint statement stipulates that there will be a “multitude of conference-events,” panels and debates across the EU, as well as “a multilingual digital platform” on topics that range from the green and digital transition to “European industry’s competitiveness.” The conference’s leadership will be divided between a “joint presidency” — consisting of von der Leyen, Sassoli and European Council President Charles Michel — and an “Executive Board” with three representatives from each institution and “up to four observers.”
The conference will be launched on May 9 and reach conclusions “by spring of 2022,” the declaration says, roughly three years after French President Emmanuel Macron first floated the concept.
“It’s essential,” Sassoli said, “that this exercise lead to concrete actions, legislative changes, treaty changes — if this is desired and wished for.”
Several Parliament officials said they expected three prominent MEPs to represent the assembly on the executive board: Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party; Iratxe García, leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats; and Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt, of the liberal Renew Europe group. But one Parliament official cautioned Sassoli may want more female representation on the board.
