The Conference on the Future of Europe hands over 49 proposals and the hard part begins

On Monday 9 May 2022, Europe Day, the three co-chairs of the Conference's Executive Board presented the final report to Roberta Metsola, Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen in the European Parliament in Strasbourg[1]. The Conference had begun with the Joint Declaration signed by the three institutions on 10 March 2021[2]. Fourteen months later it closes with 49 proposals and 326 measures[2]. The Conference Plenary endorsed those proposals at its last session in Strasbourg on 30 April 2022[3].

The method deserves a word, because our generation was written into it. Four European Citizens' Panels gathered 800 randomly selected citizens[2]. People aged 16 to 25 made up one third of each panel[4]. The panels and six national panels produced 178 recommendations, which the working groups and the Plenary turned into the proposals[5]. The Multilingual Digital Platform counted 52,346 participants, 17,671 ideas, 21,877 comments and 6,465 events[5]. These numbers are small against the population of the Union. They are large for a deliberative exercise that no treaty required.

What the citizens asked for

The proposals are addressed to Parliament, the Council and the Commission[5]. Many of them can be acted on tomorrow. Others cannot be acted on at all without amending the Treaties. The consolidated list circulated on 27 April 2022 shows where the line falls[6].

Proposal 39, on the Union's decision-making process, asks in its first measure that "all issues decided by way of unanimity should be decided by way of a qualified majority"[6]. Proposal 38 asks that Parliament obtain the right of legislative initiative and that European elections move towards transnational lists[6]. Both require treaty change. Proposal 40 goes further and contemplates "triggering the request of launching a European Convention" where needed[6]. The Plenary also asked that the Union consider lowering the voting age for European elections to 16[3].

Other measures sit inside the present Treaties. Proposal 36 asks for citizens' assemblies held periodically on a legal basis and, in its ninth measure, for a "Youth-check" of legislation that combines an impact assessment with a consultation mechanism[6]. Proposal 13 asks for statutory minimum wages that allow a decent living in every Member State[6]. The youth check has no equivalent in current practice. We regard it as the single most useful item for people under 30, because it would oblige every Commission proposal to state what it does to the generation that will live longest with it.

We note what the citizens did not ask for. They did not ask for less Europe. The democracy chapter alone contains 33 measures grouped under five objectives[3]. A randomly selected panel, one third of it under 25, reached the same conclusion that federalist associations reached decades ago: the Council's unanimity rule is where European decisions go to die.

How the institutions answered

Parliament moved first. On 4 May 2022, five days before the ceremony, it adopted a resolution calling for a Convention under Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union[7]. The resolution names the end of unanimity in the Council and a right of initiative for Parliament among the changes to be examined[7]. Alternative texts from the Identity and Democracy and ECR groups were rejected[7].

The Commission President spoke next. In Strasbourg on 9 May, von der Leyen said that "unanimity voting in some key areas simply no longer makes sense" and that she supports treaty reform "if need be"[8]. President Macron, speaking for the Council presidency, backed "a convention to revise the treaties" and proposed to raise the question at the European Council in June[8]. He also proposed a "European political community" open to democratic European states outside the Union[9]. In the same speech he said that Ukraine's accession would take "several decades" even with immediate candidate status[9]. The two ideas belong together. A new outer ring makes sense only if the inner ring reforms itself.

The Member States answered within the day. Thirteen governments circulated a paper stating that they do not support "unconsidered and premature attempts to launch a process toward Treaty change"[8]. The signatories are Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden[8]. They argue that a treaty process would draw political energy away from the urgent tasks that the Conference itself identified[10]. Their arithmetic is simple. Treaty change requires the unanimous approval of the Member States and ratification in each of them, by parliament or by referendum[10]. The Lisbon process began in 2001 and the Treaty entered into force in 2009[10].

We do not think the thirteen are wrong about the calendar. We think they are wrong about the sequence. A Convention is a forum, and a forum can be convened while the war in Ukraine continues. The alternative is a report that sits on a shelf next to the Laeken Declaration. For a 20-year-old who spent a weekend in a citizens' panel, that outcome would confirm every suspicion about European participation.

We draw four conclusions. The European Council in June should answer the report proposal by proposal, in writing, and state for each measure whether it needs treaty change. The Commission should insert the youth check of Proposal 36 into its better regulation tools this year, since nothing in the Treaties prevents it. The thirteen governments should publish which of the 326 measures they will implement under the present Treaties, so that their objection concerns the method and leaves the substance intact. Parliament should table a draft agenda for the Convention, with the articles it proposes to amend, because a Convention without an agenda is an invitation to a veto.