About

The Conference on the Future of Europe was an open and inclusive exercise in deliberative democracy like nothing we have done before. It allowed Europeans to share their expectations and ideas of Europe and formulated proposals to help guide future EU policies.
It was agreed upon by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in a joint declaration signed on 10 March 2021 in Brussels. The three institutions, whose presidents formed the Joint Presidency, committed to listen to Europeans and to follow up swiftly, within their sphere of competences, on the recommendations made. The Conference reached its conclusions in Spring 2022.
The work of the Conference was overseen by an Executive Board, on behalf of the Joint Presidency. It was composed of representatives from the three institutions on equal footing and jointly chaired. COSAC representatives from EU National Parliaments participated as observers to all board meetings. Representatives from the European Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee and social partners were also invited as observers.

The Conference was officially launched on 9 May 2021 with a ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, after the adoption of its Rules of Procedure by the Executive Board. This followed the launch of the Multilingual Digital Platform of the Conference on 19 April.

The platform was the place for citizens to submit proposals online, share ideas and interact in the EU's 24 official languages. These contributions were collected, analysed and monitored throughout the Conference. The platform also grouped events held by people and organisations as well as national, regional and local authorities across Europe. The key ideas and recommendations from the platform were used as input for the other two components of the Conference, the European Citizens' Panels and the Plenary.

The 4 European Citizens' Panels were each composed of 200 randomly selected citizens who discussed different topics and put forward their proposals. The panels were representative of the EU's population in terms of geographic origin, gender, age and socioeconomic background.

The Conference Plenary debated and discussed the recommendations from the national and European Citizens' Panels, and the input gathered from the Multilingual Digital Platform, grouped by themes. After these recommendations were presented by and discussed with citizens, the Plenary put forward its proposals for the Conference conclusions to the Executive Board. The latter drew up a report in full collaboration and full transparency with the Plenary.

The Conference Plenary was composed of 108 representatives from the European Parliament, 54 from the Council, 3 from the European Commission, 108 from national Parliaments on an equal footing, and 108 citizens. 18 representatives from the Committee of the Regions and 18 from the Economic and Social Committee, 6 elected representatives from regional authorities and 6 elected representatives from local authorities, 12 representatives from the social partners and 8 from civil society participated as well. The meetings of the Conference Plenary, which were presided by the 3 Co-Chairs of the Executive Board, were held in the EP premises in Strasbourg in all the official languages of the Union and were live-streamed as well.

The European Parliament's Delegation to the Conference Plenary consisted of 108 MEPs from all 7 political groups and Non-Attached members. It included six out of seven of Parliament's representatives and observers to the Executive Board of the Conference and was led by Guy Verhofstadt (Renew, BE). The Delegation held its meetings in advance of the Conference Plenaries to prepare the Parliament's contribution, and started from the inaugural Plenary on 18-19 June 2021.