The Conference on the Future of Europe completed its deliberations in May 2022, leaving the EU institutions the task of providing citizens with a concrete follow-up to the ambitious recommendations they have put forward. Among many proposals, the citizens have been calling for reforms that require amendments to the EU Treaties, such as the end of the unanimity rule in the Council.  

Today, the European Parliament voted on a resolution calling for a Convention and proposing a possible revision of the Treaties. The European Movement International welcomes the outcome of the vote in the European Parliament, which echoes our recommendations towards building a better and stronger Europe. 

The ball is now in the Council of the European Union’s court to decide whether Member States can also be up to the task and ambitious enough to embrace this much-needed change. We urge the Council to support this call for a European Convention in accordance with Article 48 of the Treaty on the European Union; it is time to make the European Union more democratic, stronger, transparent, and effective.  

The Convention needs to represent a participatory and inclusive process that puts citizens’ needs at the centre of the debate and includes organised civil society, Social Partners, and local and regional governments. 

Changes in the institutional processes should allow for an improvement in the democratic functioning of the EU, such as a shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting in the Council. The European Movement International calls for the strengthening of common European values such as freedom, democracy, the rule of law, equality and solidarity and the development of a fully-fledged European Defence Union (EDU) to protect citizens against external threats. The pandemic also showed the need to bring national health systems to a comparable level, while the current climate crisis demands that the EU invest in renewable energies, energy savings and energy-efficient solutions and rapidly phase out fossil fuels. 

At a moment when the European Union is fighting to defend its values and rights against autocratic forces, let us act together and deliver on the issues that lie at the heart of citizens’ proposals.  

See our policy recommendations here.

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Editor’s Note: The European Movement International is one of the largest pan- and pro-European civil society organisation with currently more than 75 Member Organisations, bringing together representatives from European associations, political parties, enterprises and trade unions.