La Conferencia sobre el Futuro de Europa: una apuesta arriesgada para fortalecer y reactivar a la Unión tras las últimas crisis

Abstract

The Conference on the Future of Europe will open a new space for debate with citizens to address Europe’s challenges and priorities. European citizens from all walks of life and corners of the Union will be able to participate, with young Europeans playing a central role in shaping the future of the European project. It will give citizens a greater role in shaping the Union’s future policies and ambitions, improving its resilience. This initiative will be carried out do so through a multitude of Conference–events and debates organised across the Union, as well as through an interactive multilingual digital platform. Is the first experience of this kind: as a major pan–European democratic exercise, it offers a new public forum for an open, inclusive, and transparent debate with citizens around a number of key priorities and challenges. The Conference on the Future of Europe could represent an innovative model to reform the EU. However EU institutions and the member states still tease out the constitutional mandate and institutional organization of the Conference, it is important they bear in mind the constraints of treaty reform. Many questions remain to be worked out regarding the Conference’s institutional organisation and constitutional mandate. And it also remains to be determined whether its ultimate mission is to bring about a major federal restructuring of the EU or rather a more discreet functional realignment of the EU. However, all EU institutions and member states that have addressed the issue have clearly indicated that the Conference on the Future of Europe should produce concrete recommendations for EU reforms, ultimately leading to treaty changes