Readings – Conference on the Future of Europe

The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), proposed by the European Commission and supported by the European Parliament, is an opportunity for all European citizens to reflect on the direction of the EU in the medium to long term future and to consider possible reforms to its policies and institutions. On 10 March 2021, Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President, David Sassoli, and Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, signed the Joint Declaration on the CoFoE.

Informative readings and documents

Timeline of CoFoE from signing of the joint declaration in March 2021 until present.

Factsheet about the roll-out of the CoFoE.

Factsheet about the multilingual digital platform of the CoFoE. Read also more information about it here.

Process of the CoFoE.

Next steps

All contributions received on the platform by 20 February 2022 will now be evaluated for the next report that is due on 17 March 2022 and will feed into the final Conference Plenaries and Working Group meetings. However, the possibility to contribute on the platform remains open to allow the debate to continue online. A report summarising the later contributions will be prepared after 9 May 2022.

The next Conference plenary of 11-12 March 2022 will discuss the recommendations of the European Citizens’ Panels on ‘the EU in the world / migration’ and ‘a stronger economy, social justice and jobs / education, culture, youth and sport / digital transformation’ as well as related recommendations from National Citizens’ Panels. The Plenary’s Working Groups will also meet and continue their preparatory discussions. The Plenary and the Working Groups will be web streamed and can be followed via the platform.

The FMA contributes to the Conference on the Future of Europe with the FMA think tank and the round tables, organized with the most important political foundations.

European Commission
Read the last European Commission’s Press release from the 28  February 2022 and official Communication from the 22 January 2020 (available in all EU languages).

European Parliament
Read more about the latest updates on MEPs’ involvement in the Conference and the two texts about the European Parliament’s position on the Conference from January 2020 (available in all EU languages) and from June 2020 (available in all EU languages).

Council of the European Union
Read the recent Council’s Press releases from the 14 February 2022 and the 18 January 2022, find out more about the latest Council’s position, and read about the Joint Declaration on the Conference approved by the Council on 5 March 2021.

European Committee of Regions
Read about the European Committee of Regions’ Resolution on the Conference  from February 2020and find out more about its delegation.

Economic and Social Committee
Read more about the latest EESC Resolution on the Conference from April 2021 and the latest planned activities for the Conference .

Read more about the Positions of EU Institutions thanks to the updated table by Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Johannes Greubel of the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels, entitled Positions of EU Institutions – Comprehensive summary of key elements.

One of the instruments of the Conference on the Future of Europe is a multilingual digital platform that offers to every European citizen the possibility to share their ideas. The idea is to collect, to analyse, to monitor and to publish throughout the Conference these statements.

The platform is presented as “the hub of the Conference” and a “way to get involved and speak up at the Conference”. According to the platform a “feedback mechanism will ensure that the ideas expressed during the Conference events” will “result in concrete recommendations for EU action“. The  “final outcome of the Conference will be presented in a report to the Joint Presidency” and the “three Institutions will examine swiftly how to follow up effectively to this report, each within their own sphere of competences and in accordance with the Treaties”.

Read more about the functioning of the multilingual digital platform here.

The FMA is participating and is engaged on the platform.

You can follow the activities of the FMA on the digital platform