Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Citizens' concerns to dominate commission seminar

The European Commission seminar on the future of the EU on Thursday and Friday will focus on citizens' expectations from the union, with the EU constitution not being the main item on the agenda.

The college of commissioners will gather in the Belgian town of Lanaken, at a location fenced off from the Brussels media on Thursday and Friday (27-28 April) in a bid to hammer out a paper on the bloc's institutional deadlock due in May.

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The commission paper will come ahead of a key EU leaders meeting in June, which will take place one year after the start of the so-called "reflection period" on the future of the EU following the French and Dutch rejection of the EU constitution.

But the fate of the EU constitution, as such, does not dominate the agenda, commission officials close to the seminar told EUobserver.

The central question put to commissioners will be how to "regain the confidence of the citizens" by "demonstrating added value" of EU policies, they said.

Discussions will first tackle the question "how to remobilise the union and construct a positive European agenda" in terms of concrete EU policies, followed by a discussion on "how to make the union into a real global actor."

Institutional conclusions will only drawn after these policy debates, the sources said.

Commissioners will try and define EU policies which should "attract the enthusiasm of the citizens," possibly adding to the new EU policy agenda of energy, innovation, and universities as agreed by EU leaders last autumn.

Another important part of the policy debate will focus on globalisation and social policy, with one question being whether the EU needs more economic and social policy coordination.

Enlargement is also on the agenda, with commissioners asked to reflect on how the EU can respect its existing commitments to EU hopeful states, while at the same time responding to citizens' enlargement fatigue.

On EU foreign policy, one fundamental question put to the college will be whether the union needs to make new strategic choices between multilateralism and regionalism or bilateralism.

Time ripe for institutional reform?

After the concrete policy discussions, the debate will move to the institutional sphere, but EU officials said the commission will not necessarily try and define its position in the ongoing debate between member states on the fate of the EU constitution.

Some EU capitals regard the constitution as "dead," while others want to revive the text in its entirety and still other countries are interested in "cherry-picking" elements of the charter.

The commission is expected to focus on the question whether the time is ripe for fresh institutional reforms or whether the reflection period should be extended.

Officials also highlighted that the seminar seeks to draw "lessons" from the reflection period on the future of the EU and the commission's own Plan D for democracy, dialogue and debate, kicked off last year.

Meanwhile, foreign ministers are expected to tackle similar issues concerning the future of the EU at a meeting next month.

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