Conference on the future of Europe: EU PUBLICATIONS

This brochure provides an overview of the Council’s follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe. The Conference was launched in March 2021 as a joint undertaking of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, to listen to European citizens and let them have their say on the future of Europe, through a citizen-led series of deliberations. The Conference ended on 9 May 2022 when the report on the final outcome of the Conference was presented. The focus is now on the follow-up.

"The European Council takes note of the proposals set out in the Report on the outcome of the Conference submitted to the three co-Presidents. The Conference has been a unique opportunity to engage with European citizens.
An effective follow-up to this report is to be ensured by the institutions, each within their own sphere of competences and in accordance with the Treaties. The European Council notes that work has already been undertaken in this regard.
It recalls the importance of ensuring that citizens are informed of the follow-up to the proposals made in the Report."

The European Council discussed the idea of a Conference on the Future of Europe starting in 2020 and ending in 2022 at its meeting held on 12 December 2019. Based on the European Council conclusions and the exchange of views held so far between the Member States and on their individual and joint contributions, as well as taking into account recent developments in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Council sets out the following position with a view to engaging with the European Parliament and the Commission.

The European Council discussed the idea of a Conference on the Future of Europe starting in 2020 and ending in 2022 at its meeting held on 12 December 2019. Based on the European Council conclusions and the exchange of views held so far between the Member States and on their individual and joint contributions, as well as taking into account recent developments in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Council sets out the following position with a view to engaging with the European Parliament and the Commission.

The European Council considered the idea of a Conference on the Future of Europe.

The Conference on the Future of Europe is a joint undertaking of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission to listen to Europeans in order for them to have their say on the future of Europe, through a citizen-led series of debates and discussions.
The Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission have made a commitment to listen to Europeans and to follow up, within their spheres of competence, on the recommendations made by the Conference.

The European Commission has adopted a Communication setting out how it can follow up on the outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe. After a year of deliberations, the Conference came to an end on 9 May 2022. In the closing ceremony in Strasbourg, a final report from the Conference participants containing 49 wide-ranging, ambitious and forward-looking proposals and 326 individual measures. This Communication is the first step in the Commission's follow-up. It offers an assessment of what is needed to follow up on the Conference's proposals, gives an overview of the next steps and sets out how best to learn the lessons from the Conference and embed participative democracy into the EU's policy and law-making.

The Conference on the Future of Europe is a citizen-led series of debates and discussions that will enable people from across Europe to share their ideas and help shape our common future.
The Conference is the first of its kind: as a major pan-European democratic exercise, with citizen-led debates enabling people from across Europe to share their ideas and help shape our common future. This is done via an innovative Multilingual Digital Platform where any European can share ideas, and both national and European Citizens' Panels. These contributions feed into the Conference Plenaries.

The white paper presented by the European Commission on 1 March 2017 sets out possible paths for the future of Europe.

Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Council to agree to start the process to revise the EU Treaties.

In its resolution on the outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe adopted on 4 May, the European Parliament welcomed and endorsed the Conference conclusions. MEPs acknowledged its proposals require Treaty change and asked the Committee on Constitutional Affairs to prepare proposals to reform the EU Treaties, a process which would take place through a Convention in line with Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union.

This Resolution is the introduction of a permanent participatory mechanism to involve citizens in EU decision-making beyond the traditional electoral period.

Comprehensive information site regarding the Conference including press releases, documents and videos.

At its plenary session of 27 and 28 April 2021 (meeting of 27 April), the European Economic and Social Committee adopted the following resolution by 228 votes to 1with 5 abstentions.

After one year of deliberation, the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) delivered its first result in the form of 49 proposals, including concrete objectives, and more than 320 potential measures on ways of achieving them. This EPRS Briefing addresses two complementary aspects of the discussions in the European Council. Firstly, it compares and analyses, based on the annexed table, the objectives set by the CoFoE in its proposals with the Strategic Agenda 2019-2024, as well as subsequent conclusions of the European Council, and identifies the areas of convergence and differences as well as ‘blank spots’. It thereby locates the potential common ground for (inter-)institutional follow-up to the CoFoE. Secondly, it provides an overview of initial views on the possible follow-up to the CoFoE, by outlining recent positions of EU leaders and EU institutions on the need for Treaty change.

The Conference on the Future of Europe is a unique and timely opportunity for European citizens to debate on Europe’s challenges and priorities. No matter where you are from or what you do, this is the place to think about what future you want for the European Union and to make your contribution to help shape it.

The Conference on the Future of Europe is a bottom-up exercise allowing European citizens to express their opinion on the Union's future policies and functioning.Tools such as the digital platform and citizens’ panels enable discussion of topics that matter to them. This EPRS infographic sets out the structures of the conference, how they will work and the topics to be discussed.

This report presents the full results of the Special Eurobarometer survey n° 517 (EB96.1) on the Future of Europe (Foe), which was carried out between 16 September and 17 October 2021 in the 27 EU Member States. This is the tenth report in the “Future of Europe” (Foe) series, and follows previous surveys in 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The surveys present a snapshot of the way Europeans perceive the EU and its future. As with the 2020 survey, this Special Eurobarometer is an inter-institutional survey conducted jointly for the European Parliament and the European Commission. Its questionnaire contains questions from both institutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken our societies and democracies. As we implement our exit strategies, we realise the magnitude of the economic, social and societal challenges we face, which are equal to the expectations citizens have of Europe. It is therefore the perfect moment for all Europeans to have their say in shaping the future of Europe. The Conference on the Future of Europe is a one-time opportunity to open the debate beyond Brussels and the national capitals.

The European Economic and Social Committee is deeply committed to the Conference on the Future of Europe as a key step towards regaining people’s trust in and support for the EU. Two conditions have been identified as critical to the success of the Conference: - Ensuring that as many Europeans as possible get involved in the debate and express their ideas, wishes, concerns and expectations about Europe, and that this exercise does not remain confined to the “usual initiated circles” – i.e. activist organisations, lobby groups and movements that know about and are already part of EU life; • Ensuring that this public input is followed up on and does not end up being ignored, as has been the case in past exercises that started out with the ambition of bringing the EU closer to its people.

The European Union is at a crossroads. A sense of crisis has been expressed by many leaders in response to internal institutional challenges, the social and economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU at the end of January 2020 after the Vote Leave victory in 2016 and the political consequences of a heightened migration crisis from parts of the Middle East and Africa devastated by endemic conflict. In a context of increased internal and external threats, European institutions have felt that now was the moment when the European Union needed to retake its destiny into its own hands to renew the social contract with EU constituent units and citizens and re-agree on a joint project and trajectory for decades to come.

European Citizens’ Panels are a key feature of the Conference on the Future of Europe, a ground-breaking exercise in deliberative democracy in the European Union. The Panels give citizens a greater role in shaping the Union’s future policies and ambitions. A representative sample of 800 citizens will meet and discuss the future of Europe to come up with policy recommendations on the main topics addressed on the Conference’s digital, multilingual Platform. These recommendations will feed into the overall Conference discussions for follow-up.

This brief gathers together proposals put forward by participants in the EUI-STG transnational democracy forum with diverse areas of expertise (in academia, think tanks, policy, NGOs, journalism); and it therefore serves as a document of collective suggestions and agenda-setting for the academic year 2021-22. The forum, which was set up in the autumn of 2020 as a space for discussion on the aims, methods and long-term implications of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), does not speak with a single voice.

After many debates and statements of principle in recent years, the time for a more structured discussion on the future of Europe's development has arrived. The Conference on the Future of Europe, announced by the Commission's President Ursula von der Leyen in her inaugural address, is set to start after a long period of standstill owing not only to changed priorities brought by the coronavirus pandemic, but also to lengthy negotiations among the institutions. The aim of the conference is to debate how the EU should develop in the future, identify where it is rising to the challenges of current times, and enhance those areas that need reform or strengthening.

This paper is the last in a series of EPRS studies on the Future of Europe debate launched after the UK referendum on EU membership in June 2016. Its aim is to highlight how the substance of the debate shaped the 2019-24 EU Strategic Agenda adopted by the Heads of State or Government at the June 2019 European Council. The scope of the paper is twofold. First, it examines the most recent stage of the Future of Europe debate (April 2018-June 2019), analysing in particular the Sibiu Declaration and the 2019-24 Strategic Agenda, and tracing the evolution from the Bratislava and Rome Declarations. Second, it evaluates the overall Future of Europe process spanning the period from June 2016 to June 2019, and points out the commonalities across the milestone documents published in that context.

The young citizens’ dialogue on the topic ‘Let’s shape the future of Europe together!’ took place on 8 May 2019 in Sibiu, Romania. This report delivers a comprehensive insight into a full day of interactive workshops and dialogues with EU politicians. The 300 young European that participated in Sibiu have the vision that tomorrow the generations should inherit a future-proof world with strong democratic values, an authentic feeling of belonging in the EU society, equal opportunities, a digital world they are able to navigate through and a climate that is resilient to change.

In September 2017, President Juncker and President Macron laid out ambitious proposals for the future of Europe.