Future of Europe conference: one year on standby
EU OBSERVER - Elena Sánchez Nicolás and Eszter Zalan - 21/12/20The troubled Conference on the Future of Europe, intended to reconnect the European project with its citizens, remains in deadlock due to an ongoing institutional dispute over who will chair it.
The troubled Conference on the Future of Europe, intended to reconnect the European project with its citizens, remains in deadlock due to an ongoing institutional dispute over who will chair it.
The much-delayed event is seen as a chance to have an inclusive dialogue with citizens and other participants, such as civil society organisations, about the way ahead for the EU – particularly after the pandemic revealed major weaknesses of the Union.
The two-year conference, initially scheduled to be launched on Europe Day (9 May), was postponed due to the first outbreaks of coronavirus. Now one year after the European Parliament and the European Commission presented their views on the conference, member states are still involved in political wrangling over who should lead the work conducted by the conference – an issue that has blocked the launch of the event for months.
“The conference was announced as the largest public consultation ever organised, but paradoxically its preparation has not benefited from any public input, having been concocted among the three institutions,”
ALBERTO ALEMANNO, PROFESSOR OF EU LAW AT HEC
This “original sin” will bedevil this self-proclaimed democratic exercise until its end, warned Alemanno, arguing that “the moment of truth” will be when the input of the conference will have to feed into EU decision-making.