Conference on the Future of Europe in Maastricht
by Eliza Wójcik & Jeanne Gallien, 6 minutes
Blue&yellow team has recently participated in the Conference on the Future of Europe! The event was a huge success and we are here to report on these three fruitful and demanding days. Firstly, the article will briefly discuss what is the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), then analyse the main topics of the session that took place in Maastricht and finally, provide some interviews and impressions of the citizens and organisers of the event. Let’s dive in!
What is the Conference on the Future of Europe?
If you have been reading blue&yellow for some time now, you know that we already wrote an article on CoFoE that extensively discusses its purpose and organisation. The article can be found here. If you just joined us, worry not! We got you:
The Conference is a series of debates and discussions led by citizens aiming to enable all Europeans to share their ideas and help in shaping a common European future, per the European Commission’s website. It is the first time in the history of the EU that an event like this is happening – it has been described by the Commission as a pan-European, democratic exercise. The Conference will allow an open, fully inclusive, and transparent debate. If you want to know more about the Conference itself, check out our previous article.
Structure of the Conference
Inside the big heading of ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’, there are multiple activities and gatherings. Among them, there are four European Citizens’ Panels. These are of particular importance as they allow citizens from all over the EU to meet and discuss their ideas and views for the future of Europe. The citizens for the panels are chosen randomly while ensuring that there is an equal representation of each Member State and both of rural and urban regions, different age groups, genders, people with different educational backgrounds, social status etc. This is of course done in order to ensure that the European society as a whole is well and adequately represented.
During each panel, the citizens formulate firstly orientations, and then recommendations, in their subgroups. Each subgroup focuses on a different topic and the discussion is led by a facilitator with the help of an assistant.
What happened in Maastricht?
The session held in Maastricht was session 3 of panel 4, entitled ‘EU in the World/ Migration’. This means that the citizens present there had already met two times and started drafting their ideas.
The first session of this panel took place in Strasbourg, between the 15th and 17th October 2021, and resulted in organising the topics and ideas into five streams:
● Stream 1: Self-Reliance and Stability
● Stream 2: The EU as an International Partner
● Stream 3: A Strong EU in a Peaceful World
● Stream 4: Migration from a Human Point of View
● Stream 5: Responsibility and Solidarity Across the EU
Then, between 26th and 28th November 2021, the citizens convened online for their second session. They took over the basics established during the first meeting to point out and discuss the issues related to the topic allocated in subgroups. The issues were defined as "problems that need solutions or situations that need to change". Afterwards, they drafted orientations. These are suggestions for concrete actions that, in their opinion, the EU should undertake. The orientations are a basis for future, more precise, recommendations. It is the recommendation that actually goes if voted upon, to the European institutions for further consideration.
Finally, around 200 citizens, facilitators, experts, moderators, and assistants from all EU Member States gathered in Maastricht for the third and last session of panel 4 between 11th and 13th February 2022. The aim of this session was to finalise and vote on the concrete recommendations. The president of ECA Max Griera, the editress in chief of the blue&yellow blog Eliza Wójcik and one of the blog members Jeanne Gallien had the opportunity to work there as assistants, therefore, could gain insight both from the citizens’ and organisational side.
credits: Eliza Wójcik
The weekend was divided into three parts: plenary session, open forum, and subgroup work. The first task was to pre-select the existing orientations by choosing which ones were the most important during the open forum. This was done by a simple voting procedure - the citizens put stickers next to the orientations they thought to be the most important ones. Then, with the help of experts and facilitators, citizens were divided into the same subgroup as the second session. The objective here was to establish at least three recommendations with three associated justifications. To make it more understandable, here is an example of a recommendation together with its justification.
Recommendation: We recommend that Member States agree on a strong vision and a common strategy in order to harmonize and consolidate the identity and the unity of the EU before allowing the accession to other countries.
Justification: We recommend this because we believe it is essential to both strengthen the EU and consolidate the relationship between the Member States before considering the integration of other countries [...].
The weekend ended with a vote on the recommendations in plenary. 40 recommendations out of 46 passed the test of a positive vote of more than 70% of the 200 citizens.
What now?
Last month’s session marked the end of the citizens' work. Now, the citizens and their ideas will be represented before the European Parliament by the ambassadors. In order to understand their role in the process well, blue&yellow interviewed two out of the 20 ambassadors present - Peter Csàkai-Szöke and Huub Verhoeven. They explained that being an ambassador is voluntary. “The ambassadors are drawn as spokespersons out of the 200 citizens and they make sure the intentions and ideas of the recommendations do not get corrupted or interpreted in a wrong way" Huub explained. The recommendations that will soon be presented to the European Parliament can become policy proposals that will be accepted or rejected. Both Peter and Huub were pretty confident and looking forward to this appointment, but when asked if they had ever had a bad experience during their appointment as ambassadors, they both said yes. Peter explained that it was difficult to get the audience to listen to them and that they didn't always take them very seriously. As for Huub, he claimed that sadly many politicians left the plenary mid-session. Peter still ended on a good note. Blue&yellow can only wish them courage for the next plenary sessions.
The Conference is an unprecedented chance for the European citizens. Each of them came out of the session a little more European and was proud of it. Recently, one of the organisers Mark Hessellund Beanland confirmed that the Conference was still a one-time event that is not yet sure to be renewed. However, he emphasised that the enthusiasm and dedication of the participants made him optimistic and that he would be glad to repeat an event of this kind. In addition, two out of the four panels recommended that events of this kind, that is giving voice to the EU citizens and listening to them, should be renewed or happen on a regular basis. For more information regarding the organisation and execution of the Conference, you can always contact the ambassadors of panel 4 at their email address: citizenspanel4@gmail.com.
