Conference on the future of Europe: Articles

Conscious of the democratic importance of the Conference on the Future of Europe for the peace project that is European integration, the European Law Journal, in partnership with the College of Europe, and more specifically, its Legal Studies department and its Political and Governance Studies department, organised last year a high-level interdisciplinary conference on the future of Europe. This double issue is the result of this common endeavour.

The EU has recently organised a series of 'citizen-centred' processes that may be indicative of a new pattern in terms of democracy and participation. The article begins with this observation in order to pose the following question: to what extent the introduction of 'citizen participation' mechanisms in the Conference on the Future of Europe reflects a rupture with the EU's dominant understanding of democracy?

Cela fait désormais plus de deux décennies que s’est répandue la conviction selon laquelle, sans davantage d’implication des citoyens, l’UE est condamnée à l’échec. La pandémie de COVID-19 ainsi que l’invasion russe de l’Ukraine pourraient avoir accéléré davantage cette destinée. En effet, plus le temps passe et plus cette prophétie devient auto-réalisatrice. Au-delà des crises sanitaire et économique causées par le coronavirus, il y a une urgence démocratique plus profonde et négligée qui précède la pandémie et le conflit ukrainien. Étant donné que l’influence politique de l’UE sur la vie des citoyens a significativement augmenté, les attentes de ces derniers d’avoir la possibilité d’influencer la politique européenne se sont aussi accrues.

The agenda of the Conference on the Future of Europe contains the potential for numerous legislative recommendations. This raises the question of the future resilience of Union law. The article, which is based on the author’s introductory speech of ERA’s webinar on the Conference, assesses the challenges and chances of the Union’s capacity to engage in proper rule-making, to experience compliant rule-implementation and to benefit from a judiciary which reliably settles disputes. It concludes that as long as the demanding requirements of an enlightened legal civilisation are fulfilled there is no reason not to trust in Legal Europe’s future.

Differentiation has become a central topic of debate in the EU. Generally, it is considered a positive device for advancing integration in crucial policies, letting the unwilling states opt out from the new regimes. However, the debate has not sufficiently acknowledged that policy differentiation has been made possible by governance differentiation. It was the 1992 Maastricht Treaty's decision to inaugurate an intergovernmental regime for core state power policies, distinct from the supranational regime regulating single market policies, that allowed differentiation to flourish. Differentiation and intergovernmentalism are thus inter‐connected. During multiple crises of the last decade, intergovernmental governance has shown its undemocratic effects, thus soliciting a critical reappraisal of the differentiation logic. The federalisation of the EU appears a more promising alternative strategy for advancing integration and, at the same time, meeting the democratic expectations of the EU. This analytical exercise speaks to the Conference on the Future of Europe.

European citizens need their own permanent participatory mechanisms in the legislative procedure to exploit the full potential of citizens’ participation to strengthen EU democratic legitimacy.
The Conference on the Future of Europe represents an opportunity to pilot innovative methods of citizen engagement, sustainable into the future.

Part 6 of the article :
Conclusion with regard to the conference on the future of Europe 2020–2022

The paper offers a first analysis of the recent plan to establish a Conference on the Future of Europe to reform the European Union (EU), comparing this initiative with two historical precedents to relaunch the EU – namely the Conference of Messina and the Convention on the Future of Europe – and considering the legal rules and political options for treaty reform in the contemporary EU. To this end, the paper overviews prior efforts to reform the EU, and points out the conditions that led to the success or failures of these initiatives. Subsequently it examines the technicalities of the EU treaty amendment rules and emphasizes the challenge towards treaty reform resulting from the need to obtain unanimous approval by all member states. The paper then assesses the increasing tendency by member states to use inter-se international treaties – particularly in response to the euro-crisis – and underlines how these have introduce new ratification rules, overcoming unanimity. Drawing lessons from these precedents, finally, the paper suggests what will be a condition for the success of the Conference on the Future of Europe, and argues that this should resolve to draft a new treaty – a Political Compact – designed to push forward integration among those member states that so wish.

The proposal is for EU democracy to reform its dual system of representative and participatory democracy in order for these channels to become more complementary and more effectively engage with the citizenry. While it will not magically treat the EU democratic malaise, it could make the system more intelligible, accessible, and ultimately responsive to citizen-driven issues—without necessarily undertaking Treaty reform. As the EU enters a new politico-institutional cycle, the immediate priority is therefore to ensure that EU citizen level participation appear prominently in the agenda of the new Commission without being totally appropriated by the ad hoc Conference on the future of Europe.

La entrada en vigor el 1 de enero de 2020 del nuevo Reglamento (UE) 2019/78 sobre la Iniciativa Ciudadana Europea (ICE) invita a realizar un balance del instrumento por excelencia llamado a impulsar la participación de la ciudadanía en la vida democrática de la UE. En el presente trabajo analizaremos su configuración jurídica, indagando en la eficacia y en los problemas políticos y jurídicos detectados durante las sucesivas fases de su aplicación.

Durante los próximos dos años asistiremos a un proceso de reflexión acerca de la forma y contornos que adquiriría la Unión Europea en el futuro. La Conferencia sobre el Futuro de Europa -en adelante la Conferencia - cuyo inicio se había programado para el pasado 9 de mayo de 2020 y que la pandemia obligo a posponer, se presenta como una oportunidad para la reflexión acerca de la forma de Europa que queremos para las próximas décadas.

The Citizens' Convention on Climate (CCC) gathered 150 people, randomly selected but representing the diversity of French society. Its mandate was to formulate a series of concrete measures aimed to achieve at least a 40% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 1990) while preserving social justice. The citizens auditioned experts on various topics from climate to economics and then formulated their own proposals, thus building an effective consensus, beyond individual specific interests. Moreover, proposals formed a coherent whole, and in this regard fare much better than previous attempts to tackle environmental and climate transition through public debates. This methodology shows how citizen science can produce efficient and quality outcomes.

This contribution to the Dialogue offers a first analysis of the recent initiative to establish a Conference on the Future of Europe – discussing whether it can become a new model to reform the EU, and if so, how it should be designed to succeed. The contribution examines the technicalities of the EU treaty amendment rules and emphasises the challenge that the need to obtain unanimous approval by all Member States poses towards reform. The contribution then assesses the increasing tendency by Member States to use international treaties outside the EU legal order and underlines how these have introduced new ratification rules, overcoming unanimity. Drawing lessons from these precedents, the contribution suggests that to achieve its ambitious reform objectives the Conference on the Future of Europe should consider the option to reform the EU outside the EU, by drafting a new, separate treaty with an entry-into-force rule which replaces unanimity with a supermajority vote.

There is considerable uncertainty about the outcome of the planned Conference on the Future of Europe, especially regarding possible treaty change. This contribution to the Dialogue comments on the possibility of an intergovernmental agreement outside the EU treaty framework on the basis of theoretical and empirical knowledge about differentiated integration. It argues that such an agreement would deviate from the traditional logic of differentiated integration venues, and that differentiated integration is generally of limited value for overcoming decision-making blockades on constitutional and redistributive issues.

Fin 2019, année du renouvellement de la composition des principales institutions européennes, a été acté le principe de la tenue d’une Conférence sur l’avenir de l’Europe, qui devrait commencer en 2020 et durer deux ans. Cette conférence — qui doit être organisée par le Parlement, le Conseil et la Commission européenne — fait partie des principaux engagements pris par la présidente de la Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, et vise à renforcer le processus démocratique européen puisqu’elle est censée impliquer un échantillon représentatif de la société et donner ainsi aux citoyens européens la possibilité de contribuer à la réforme de l’Union européenne. Que peut-on en attendre ? Sur quels sujets majeurs les discussions devraient-elles porter ? Comment les pays membres peuvent-ils faire évoluer le fonctionnement de l’Union post-Brexit ? Jean-François Drevet défriche ici les chantiers sur lesquels la Conférence sur l’avenir de l’Europe pourrait travailler dans les deux ans qui viennent.