In the coming months, the European debate will be marked by the discourse on the implementation of the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe, that is, of the 39 proposals and the 350 measures. Furthermore, it will be marked by the work on the European Convention and the reform of the Treaties, thus initiating debates on its order to determine the specific aspects in which the changes will have to be made, such as, for example, in Foreign Policy, Health, environment, Social Pillar, Economy for the benefit of people, etc.

Therefore, since the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement:

1. We welcome the two resolutions adopted by the plenary session of the European Parliament on the 4th of May and the 9th of June, where this European institution requests the European Council, according to Article 48.2. of the Treaty on European Union, the convening of the Third European Convention as a result of the conclusions of the CoFoE. In this regard, we welcome the fact that the text of the European Parliament resolution adopted on the 9th of June requesting the European Council to convene the European Convention establishes that the European Parliament “Considers that representatives of the social partners, the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Committee of the Regions and civil society from both the Union and the candidate countries should be invited as observers to the convention;”
   
2. In the Communication presented on the 17th of June, 2022, by the European Commission, we were surprised with concern that (a) it makes no reference to the participation of civil society in the debate at the Conference on the Future of Europe; b) refers to the creation of a new group of Citizen Panels based on the debate on the State of the European Union in September 2022; c) the launch of a new platform for citizens’ consultation called “have you say portal”. These three measures will be launched next September in the speech of the President of the European Commission in the State of the European Union.

3. The mistake, in our view, is that both the Commission’s report and the Council’s draft for the 23rd and 24th of June are taking the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe at face value. I believe that these must be relativised, as the European Parliament did very rightly, where it did not remain solely in studying to the millimeter the content of each of the 39 proposals and more than
   300 measures, but I propose these in a general sense of reforms and deepening of the treaty, which I believe is the path that civil society must follow. We must not dwell on some “cool” ideas of the Citizens’ Panels, but, in any case, attend to the general sense of need for a reform of the Treaties.
   
4. The draft of the European Council is an excessively technical and not a political document, remaining only in the 18 strict points that would imply the reform of the Treaties, instead of taking a global look at the major issues to be reformed.
   
5. The general theme is the overcoming of unanimity, an issue that must be addressed and where states cannot look the other way. The striking thing is that the small countries do not want this; although, this is explainable because in the system of qualified majority, their power is diluted. So we will have to find an intermediate formula.
   

Furthermore, the International European Movement should focus on the importance of the implementation of CoFoE and the European Convention, seeking to participate in both processes, as it did at the Conference on the Future of Europe.
However, it must be denounced that the Conference on the Future of Europe did not comply with the proposals of the President of the European Commission, neither in its composition nor in its functioning where the weight of citizens was at least 10 times greater than that of civil society. This is completely unacceptable. Prior to the launch of new Citizen Panels, an evaluation of the Conference should first be carried out indicating the strengths and weaknesses in order to avoid falling back into the same mistakes that CoFoE has had. Given the gravity of the situation experienced in the CoFoE, and that now seems to continue in the autumn and the loss of the role of civil society as a whole and of the European International Movement, in particular, we propose that the Board should set up a Commission in order to be able to prepare a clear strategy to reclaim our position and which is based on the Treaty (Article 11). Thus to stipulate, and to achieve, that in the new Panels this situation is corrected. The European Movement must make a complaint about this situation. At the same time, we must continue to press for the consolidation of substantial progress that has been made as a result of Covid-19 and Russian aggression against Ukraine and to move forward on the federal path of the European Union.