The Conference is an experiment of inclusive reflection and renewal that could help our European democracies innovate, adapt and prosper. But to be successful, the Conference leadership must be mindful of 6 treacherous gaps in the Joint Declaration.
After a year-long delay, the Presidents of the European Commission, European Parliament and Council have finally signed the Joint Declaration
on the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). The signatories
agree to “open a new space for debate with citizens to address Europe’s
challenges and priorities” so that people from “all walks of life and
corners of the Union”, especially younger generations, can “have their
say on the future of Europe”. They also commit to following up on the
input collected from citizens’ events until spring 2022, when the
Conference shall reach its conclusions.
Such a “citizens-focused,
bottom-up exercise” is an opportunity to have critical and potentially
even uncomfortable conversations about the modern drivers of
transformation (e.g. inequality, climate change, digitalisation, ageing
societies, global power shifts) in a post-COVID-19 world. The magnitude
of powerful forces constantly gathering steam entails that
decision-makers need people’s opinions and buy-in to determine the
future direction of Europe. Politicians need their citizens’ support to
shoulder the responsibility of the weighty decisions required to
successfully adapt to the complexities and difficulties of this day and
age.
The Conference is an opportunity to foster this urgent
process of inclusive reflection and renewal, and it is high time to get
the ball rolling. But to be successful, the Conference leadership should
address head-on several glaring gaps in the Joint Declaration.
Mind the gaps
Putting
the Conference – a complex and lengthy process of events and
deliberations concerning key European issues, in innovative formats and
between various actors at different levels of governance – into practice
was always going to be a learning curve. All the more so given that the
Joint Declaration is as clear as mud on the exact why, what and how of this exercise. These imprecisions were a deliberate choice to enable compromise and get the EU institutions and member states on board.
Nevertheless,
the Conference should not be a stab in the dark in every direction.
More specifically, to set it on the track to success, its leadership
must first overcome 6 particularly dangerous gaps:
1. The decision-making structure
The
Joint Declaration specifies that the Executive Board – the Conference’s
main body co-chaired by the Parliament, Commission, and Council – will
decide “the modalities for reporting on the outcome of the various
activities” undertaken in the context of the CoFoE “by consensus”. But
when it comes to key decisions about the process and final outcome of
the Conference, strict compliance with the consensus principle could
result in either a stalemate or the very lowest common denominator.
Neither of these scenarios will likely help the Conference be remembered
as a worthwhile endeavour. ....
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