Dec 19th 2019,
12 tweets,
6 min read
Despite its constitutional ambitions, #CoFoE won’t be a grandiloquent Convention entrusted to draft Constitution for EU. Yet a closer look suggests it'll play a similar role: to prepare a set of “concrete recommendations” that may be turned into legislative and/or Treaty changes
While the governance and set up of the Conference is reminiscent of the failed Convention on the Future of Europe, there’s ONE major ‘novelty’ in its design and ethos. This is supposed “to be a bottom up exercise where EU citizens are listened to” #CoFoE
Yet when measured against its bottom-up, participatory ambition, the EP plan disappoints everyone, but the members of the 3 institutions that remain on – and fight for - the driver seat of #CoFoE
Supposedly the most bottom-up experiment of EU democracy, it might emerge as one of most top-down. None of its proposed governance bodies – from Executive Body, Steering to the plenary – foresees the participation of citizens, but representatives (MEPs are overrepresented) #CoFoE
The only participatory dimension of #CoFoE is offered by 6 citizens’ agoras, whose 200/300 participants will be RANDOMLY selected by each Member States and peripatetically meet across EU. Cosmetic? You haven't heard of the Youth agoras yet
Besides the methodological & design vagueness surrounding the operation of the Citizens's Agoras and their actual feeding into the Plenary, the Agoras won’t play any CO-CREATION role, by stepping in as a cherry - not its flour - on the Brussels-baked cake #CoFoE
The Citizens’ Agoras expressly exclude politicians, lobbies and NGOs among its participants, but by so doing they may open the door to - and be undercut by - astroturfing practices #CoFoE
What’s next? The EP blueprint coming from working groups will be merge with AFCO resolution and circulated to Commission and Council in early 2020 #CoFoE (EU optimism bias at play). And @dubravkasuica @VeraJourova @MarosSefcovic ?
FINAL take-away: instead of fighting for the leadership of #CoFoE, the three institutions should:
1. do their homework (on participatory & deliberative practices)
and
2. lead by example by showing what co-creation could be about in emerging EU democratic innovation space
1. do their homework (on participatory & deliberative practices)
and
2. lead by example by showing what co-creation could be about in emerging EU democratic innovation space
« In essence » stands for ´de facto’
