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European Union could become capable of responding to the challenges of our time. A hope for us and for the future generations
The proposal of a conference about the future of Europe, which should be convened by the end of 2019, was put forward by the French president Emmanuel Macron in the Manifesto For European renewal published on 4 March 2019 and addressed to European citizens. It is an extraordinary opportunity for Europe, because it enables citizens to gather, gives university students, social partners, religious and spiritual representatives conditions via which they can be heard, and provides the roadmap for the re-foundation of the Union to be drawn up.
The Conference will be the public European forum in which to face several issues, including the EU’s role in the globalised world, the relationship between federal citizenships and national identities, the fight against inequality and sustainable development goals.
An open, transparent and structured dialogue with civil society and citizens is expected. This dialogue must be pursued with a view of strengthening the process of building a common European identity under the principle that says that “sovereignty belongs to the people”. The conference must be combined with an intense communication campaign that allows citizens to be informed about the progress of the work, together with debates and discussions with representatives of civil society.
With this in mind, the European Movement, the Union of European Federalists and the Young European Federalists are confident that:
- the Conference should be held on the basis of an inter-institutional declaration (signed by the Commission, Parliament and the Council after consulting the ECB, the EESC and the Committee of the Regions) and attended by a secretariat provided by the Commission and the European Parliament, to be concluded in the spring of 2022, at the beginning of the French Presidency of the Council;
- the Conference will not replace the role of the institutions in developing common policies;
- it is necessary to avoid any rigidity of rules which have structured and still shape the procedures of the European Convention ex art. 48, inspired by the method which led the European Parliament to adopt the “Draft Treaty” — a global and coherent, new and independent treatydesigned to create a new entity;
- the European Parliament should take this unique opportunity for public debate to promote, elaborate on and lead the Conference to adopt a new Draft Treaty that can be shared with national parliaments;
- in order to set up cooperation with national parliaments, it would be crucial to provide for “interparliamentary meetings on the future of Europe”, as proposed by François Mitterrand to the European Parliament on 28 October 1989 and later in Rome in November 1990 on the eve of the Intergovernmental Conferences on the Maastricht Treaty.
Read the Macron’s Manifesto For European renewal.
European Union could become capable of responding to the challenges of our time. A hope for us and for the future generations