Sefcovic: Final Stage of CoFoE Marks End of Important Phase for Europeans
Brussels, May 6 (TASR-correspondent) – The final stage of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) marks the end of a very important phase for Europeans, and the European Commission (EC) is already dealing with some of the proposals on the fly, EC Vice-President Maros Sefcovic has told TASR.
On May 9, which marks Europe Day, the three CoFoE executive board co-chairs will present the final report of the CoFoE to EU institutions. Sefcovic noted that for the first time, the EU directly addressed its citizens to ask them what they want from the Union and how they see its future. He described the process as enlightening for both EU institutions themselves as well as the 800 randomly selected EU citizens who worked over many weekends and met in working groups with representatives of these institutions. This gave them an insight into how the EU’s legislative process works, but also gave them an opportunity to voice what they expect of these institutions.
According to Sefcovic, there will be speeches by three most senior representatives of EU institutions – French President Emmanuel Macron on behalf of France as the country holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola – on how each institution wants to deal with the 49 citizens’ proposals that were approved by the last CoFoE plenary.
“I, of course, hope that the European Commission will act very quickly to analyse what we can achieve already next year, and I would like to include this in the work programme of the European Commission next year,” he claimed.