Reforming the European Union: How Parliament is responding to citizens’ expectations

Summary:

The Conference on the Future of Europe was designed to give the general public a say about their vision for the European Union, by means of a multilingual digital platform and citizens' panels. The panels are transnational forums, gathering citizens from the EU Member States to discuss their vision for the future of the Union and make recommendations on how the EU could be improved. The resulting proposals are diverse but constructive. They include interesting, sometimes ambitious, suggestions for the future and in many respects are geared towards building a more efficient, integrated Union that is closer to its citizens.

This briefing focuses on the recommendations made by Panel 2 (European democracy / values, rights, rule of law and security), and recommendations uploaded onto the multilingual digital platform (under European democracy). The latter are predominantly constitutional and institutional in nature and therefore tackle broader issues, such as reform of the EU institutional set-up, improvements to the EU decision-making process, closer cooperation among Member States and a stronger European Parliament. In many respects, the overview given in this briefing shows how Parliament has been very active in making proposals and endorsing changes in almost all the fields where citizens have expressed the need for the EU to take action. While the citizens' panels have been an interesting and innovative exercise in participatory democracy, the outcome of the conference has still to take shape, and will be captured in a final report to be issued when its work ends in spring 2022.

Further information:

This is the first in a series of briefings that will look at citizens' expectations and recommendations in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe, and the European Parliament's response.

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