European Commission Specifies How It Wants to Follow Up on CoFoE Results
Brussels, June 17 (TASR-correspondent) – The European Commission (EC) explained on Friday afternoon how it can follow up on the outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE).
After a year of direct negotiations with citizens, the conference ended on May 9, 2022. At the closing ceremony in Strasbourg, the presidents of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council received a final report from CoFoE participants containing 49 broad proposals and 326 individual actions.
Although the conference has brought “quantity and quality” of proposals, its success will depend on the changes it can bring. In this spirit, the EC, together with the European Parliament and the European Council, committed in a joint declaration of March 2021 that each of the institutions will act within its powers and in accordance with the Treaties on the Functioning of the EU.
The EC announcement on Friday is the first step in the measures it wants to take. The Commission offers an assessment of what needs to be done following the conference’s proposals, provides an overview of the next steps and sets out how best to learn from CoFoE and how to integrate “participatory democracy” into EU policy and legislation.
In this context, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said that European citizens had provided the EU institutions with richer and broader ideas for improving the functioning of the European Union. “We’ve promised to respond. Today’s announcement is the first step in always standing by those who want to reform the Union for the better,” she said.
