After its official launch in spring, the Conference is entering a crucial stage: it needs to get as much input from citizens as possible on how the EU should face the challenges of a changing world.
Make your contribution
More than 5,000 ideas have been submitted to the online platform, on topics ranging from the climate emergency to European democracy. It’s a good start, but much more is needed. Browse through the topics, share your views on other people’s suggestions and come up with your own ideas.
Maybe you want to discuss your thoughts with other people? Join an upcoming event or organise your own. Just make sure the outcome of the discussions makes its way onto the platform.
The Conference on the Future of Europe is not just a way to make your voice heard. Your ideas can have a real impact on important decisions: the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission have pledged to act on people’s recommendations and on the conclusions of the Conference.
What will happen to your ideas?
The contributions submitted on the platform will form the basis for the entire work of the Conference through four European citizens’ panels. These will each consist of 200 Europeans, selected randomly, but in a way that ensures they are representative of the EU as a whole.
Based on your contributions, each panel will formulate proposals for change. These proposals will then be submitted to the Conference Plenary, which brings together citizens and representatives of the European Parliament, national parliaments, EU governments, the European Commission, civil society and social partners.
Each European citizens’ panel will select 20 members to represent it at the Conference Plenary. In total, counting the citizens from national panels and events, and the President of the European Youth Forum, 108 citizens will take part in the Plenary - a quarter of all members.
The European citizens’ panels will meet at least three times. The first meetings are scheduled for September and early October, before the next Plenary on 22-23 October. The second meetings will be held in November and panels will finalise their work in December and January 2022.
The Plenary will meet in late October and every month between December 2021 and March 2022 to discuss people's proposals and make recommendations for concrete EU action.
The final report will be prepared in the spring of 2022 by the executive board of the Conference. The board comprises representatives of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission - the institutions that will have to follow up on the conclusions - as well as observers from all Conference stakeholders. The report will be drawn up in full collaboration with the Conference Plenary and will have to receive its approval.
Why does Europe need new ideas?
The Covid-19 pandemic has already changed the world. Now Europe is looking for ways to recover from the crisis and find sustainable solutions to the challenges of the future that include climate change, the progress of digital technologies and increased global competition.
“If we want to be fit for purpose for the next decades, it will be necessary to reform the European Union and not to be a union that only reacts too little and too late to what is happening in the world and in our own societies,” said Guy Verhofstadt, Parliament’s co-chair of the executive board. “That is the main question: how to make the European Union fit for purpose, ready to act and react in the world of tomorrow.”
