The Conference on the Future of Europe will soon start. This is a great victory for the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament, who initiated it.

Dacian Cioloş, President of Renew Europe Group, said: “The Conference is a unique exercise in continental participative democracy. All of Europe’s problems will be put on the table. All solutions will be envisaged. It’ll be a Conference with citizens and without taboos.”

This unprecedented democratic exercise will give European citizens a direct say on the Europe they want. All subjects will be up for debate, including the strengthening of democratic decision-making processes at European level. It is a matter of opening doors and windows, of giving citizens their rightful place in the construction of the European project.

The Conference’s debates can be organised in many different ways, at the national, local, regional and European levels. Citizens' agora will be created, and they will have to reflect European diversity. European citizens will also have the opportunity to express themselves through an interactive and multilingual digital platform.

Renew Europe also wants to involve national parliaments, civil society, associations and all representative European institutions in this great democratic debate. The first conclusions of the Conference will be drawn in one year's time, in spring 2022. They should take the form of concrete proposals for the future of Europe.

Renew Europe will take their rightful place in this debate, and is already preparing citizens' panels, whose contributions will feed into the work of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

The European Parliament, as the only institution directly elected by citizens, will play a leading role in the organisation of the Conference. The political groups involved in this initiative will ensure this. Alongside the Joint Declaration, the Conference of Presidents adopted a text recalling the leading role that the Parliament will have in the Conference. This role “will be reflected in the work and in the practical organisation of the Conference itself”, according to the text.

"The Conference on the Future of Europe is a priority for Renew Europe Group. The Group has fought hard for it. So today it is a great cause for satisfaction. Europeans will be able to speak up and say what kind of Europe they want, all invited to take an active part in this unprecedented democratic exercise. Renew Europe wanted this great debate, and having obtained it, will make sure that the voice of the citizens is heard", Cioloş added.