Commission to Parliament: Let’s calm down on EU makeover

Executive takes more cautious line on conference on the future of Europe.

The European Parliament has been getting rather excited about the “Conference on the Future of Europe.” The European Commission? A bit less.

In a draft of the Commission’s vision on “shaping the Conference on the Future of Europe,” seen by POLITICO ahead of its release on Wednesday, the EU’s executive arm is open to, but rather cautious about, the idea of remodeling the EU as a “new public forum” aimed at “enabling EU citizens to shape EU policies.”

“The Conference cannot be a simple stocktaking exercise,” says the Commission text. But it doesn’t go anywhere near as far as a resolution adopted by MEPs last week that called for consultations with citizens, through so-called agoras involving 200 to 300 people from across EU countries.

The Parliament also called for several bodies to be set up as part of the project, including a “Conference Plenary,” a “steering committee,” and an “executive board” — picking Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and current liberal MEP, to lead the process.

The Commission doesn’t go into that level of detail on governance and doesn’t mention personnel.

“The reflection process of the Commission does not go as far as ours,” said Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP. “But my reading is rather positive as it allows for everything the Parliament had asked for,” he said, adding that the new Commission, which took office in December, “hasn’t had the time yet” to go into details on the conference.

French President Emmanuel Macron came up with the idea for the conference last year, arguing it should “propose all the necessary changes to our political project, without any taboos, not even treaty revision.”

Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission president, made setting up the conference, which is slated to start in 2020 and run for two years, one of her priorities. She has made clear the exercise would explore institutional changes, including improving the Spitzenkandidat — or lead candidate — system for choosing a Commission president, establishing transnational lists of MEPs and reforming Council decision-making.

The Parliament was the first EU institution to set out its ideas for the conference, backing an ambitious resolution by 494 votes to 147 (with 49 abstentions).

At last week’s meeting of Parliament leaders — known as the Conference of Presidents — senior MEPs agreed to set up a five-strong Executive Coordination Board featuring members from three political families — European People’s Party, Socialists & Democrats and Renew Europe — plus representatives from the Commission and Council.

Instead of the Parliament’s idea for “agoras,” the Commission proposes building on the “well-established” Citizens’ Dialogues, but adds that it is “ready to explore” effective ways of engaging citizens in EU policymaking.

“The success of the Conference will largely depend on how effectively and widely it is communicated to Europeans,” says the Commission text.

The Council has shown little enthusiasm for the idea. At a European Council meeting in Brussels in December, leaders of the EU’s member countries signed off on conclusions that showed they were not overly thrilled by the concept.

Besides France, to a lesser extent Germany and a few others, many EU diplomats have expressed skepticism about how effective the exercise is likely to be, and are wary of any talk of changing the EU’s governing treaties.