With the European Citizens’ Panels coming to a close and having submitted their recommendations to the Conference Plenary, it is now the role of the Plenary and its respective thematic Working Groups to discuss the recommendations further and prepare Plenary proposals. With no proper working procedure in the Plenary’s Working Groups, the Citizens Take Over Europe alliance initiated the open letter to call for a democratic decision-making method within the Conference Plenary. The Plenary debates the recommendations from the citizens of the national and European Citizens' Panels and the Multilingual Digital Platform, who will then put forward its proposals to the Executive Board. Members of the Plenary include representatives from the three EU institutions, national parliaments, European Economic and Social Committee, Committee of the Regions, civil society, social partners, regional and local authorities, and citizen representatives. 

“The Conference is entering a critical stage related to shaping the outcomes of the Conference, but those outcomes need to be reached in a transparent and accountable decision-making method, based on principles of democracy,” said Daniela Vancic, European Program Manager at Democracy International who is closely following the Conference developments. “The fact that politicians from EU and national level across several political groups, citizen representatives in the Conference, and a great number of organizations all agree that accountability needs to be at the forefront of Conference decision-making shows that the Conference needs to uphold high levels of democratic standards.”

A proposal by Citizens Take Over Europe to move from recommendations to Plenary proposals is this 6-step plan which resembles the decision-making method in the European Parliament. This method is based on public and transparent voting as opposed to a “trilogue-style” of decision-making which risks decisions being taken behind closed doors by the various institutional components of the Conference.

Background:

The Citizens Take Over Europe coalition initiated the open letter. The coalition, of which Democracy International is a founding member, calls for a citizens’ centered, inclusive, and democratic Conference on the Future of Europe.

For the full open letter and list of co-signatories, see here.

More information on Democracy International’s position on the Conference on the Future of Europe are here.

For questions, contact:

Daniela Vancic, vancic@democracy-international.org, +49 221 669 66531