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Conference on the Future of Europe: What now?
The Conference on the future of Europe is an initiative of European institutions to engage with the citizens and bring Europe closer. The process that involved randomly selected citizens, MEPs, representatives from the EU Council and Commission, and member states has lasted over a year and is now coming to a conclusion.
"The Conference on the future of Europe has been an interesting participatory exercise with interesting results in terms of further European integration. It has provided a way for citizens, especially those randomly chosen for the panels, to lead the debate and co-decide on recommendations for the future." EFA Group President Jordi Solé said.
"It was supposed to be the highlight of this Parliament's term of office. It remained too much ignored by the general public because it was stifled both by the pandemic and by the weak involvement of governments and political parties." François Alfonsi, EFA MEP, continued.
Over 300 proposals on making Europe better around nine themes, including climate change, health, the economy and social justice, democracy, digital transformation, education and migration. EFA MEPs Jordi Solé and François Alfonsi took part and led the voice of minorities and stateless nations. The EFA party brought ten proposals to the conference, including the Democratic European Mechanism of Clarity (DEMoC).
MEP Alfonsi said: "Among the crucial issues ignored in the adopted conclusions is the right of peoples to decide democratically about their future. This is the case, for example, in Catalonia and Scotland. It has also been raised, in a dramatic way, in Ukraine for the last few weeks. "
EFA President Jordi Solé added: "I regret that highly endorsed proposals in the digital platform like the one on a clarity mechanism to apply the right to self-determination have just been ignored."
DEMoC is a legislative tool for stateless nations and peoples to democratically decide their future, proposing a mechanism of clarity at EU level to facilitate and resolve self-determination cases democratically. Even though unfortunately, EFA's proposals to the digital platform were ignored, as a party, EFA will continue to promote and integrate this proposal to build a #EuropeOfAllPeoples.
"Now, the official ending of the conference should mean the beginning of a reform wave. A reform that incorporates the lessons leant during the last years and brings about a stronger, more federal EU." MEP Solé said.
"For our part, we will continue to support such a proposal. Europe must ensure that it contributes to the future of all its citizens and contributes to the future of all its peoples by ensuring that they can exercise their right to self-determination, which is a fundamental right." EFA MEP Alfonsi assured.
The findings of the Conference of Europe will be published on the 9th of May.
EFA MEP François Alfonsi said: "If Europe does not have the courage to formulate democratic proposals to resolve sovereignty conflicts even against the will of nostalgic member states of the last century, it runs the risk of being affected by serious political crises in the future. "
EFA Group President Jordi Solé concluded: "Let's honour the conference results with a Convention. If not now, then when."
