Thread by @alemannoEU

Did the Conference on the Future of Europe succeed?

It depends very much on how you measure success.

For me it worked beyond expectations.

Here’s why 🧵 #CoFoE #FutureOfEurope

1 If you belong to those who expected #CoFoE to magically deliver a re-opening of the Treaty, you may be disappointed. No majority exists to endorse EP’s demand. That might never materialize. Wait for June #EUCO but it might not be the point project-syndicate.org/commentary/con…

2 If instead you valued #CoFoE as an open-ended (not outcome-bound) process, you may be satisfied. Not only a permanent mechanism of citizen deliberation in EU decision-making is foreseen, but that can be done without treaty change. But there’s more.

euronews.com/2022/01/20/fra…

3 As predicted, #CoFoE acted - like most deliberative exercises - as a Trojan horse into the dominant political conversation. The taboo-breaking recommendations put forward by citizens show how #CoFoE opened up the Overton window of EU political reform socialeurope.eu/releasing-euro…

4 True: it’s not the conference but the extraordinary events such as pandemic+war that revealed to the many the incomplete nature of EU integration.
Yet #CoFoE deliberative model being conducive to take stock of that great reckoning it capitalized on it.
socialeurope.eu/the-future-of-…

5 The question now is whether to content ourselves with EU patchy responses to the new emergencies – as the 12 countries resisting Treaty chance demand – , or rather to embark on a ‘quantum leap’ to upgrade the Union to the ‘brave new world’ in which we find ourselves in #CoFoE

6 The answer to this question will not only define EU’s course of history but also that of its 450 millions, and potentially many more waiting at its doors (ask Ukrainians, Moldovans, etc) #CoFoE

7 From this perspective, CoFoE is set to mark a watershed moment in EU integration as it will force all political leaders to PUBLICLY position themselves on EU’s future direction against citizens’ REVEALED preferences.

legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2021/05/10/…

8 #CoFoE represents the 1st recognition that EU ultimate authority does not lie with the institutions nor Member States, but with its citizens.

Due to its constitutional significance, this will irreversibly affect the nature of EU integration.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

9 The recommendations that emerged from citizens were more the by-product of the genuine transnational experience gained by the Conference’s participants than the inevitable result of a supposedly pro-EU biased initiative #CoFoE

10 Here three big ideas on how to capitalize on the ‘constitutional moment’ the EU may be entering into.

Read this piece co-authored with @KalypsoNicolaid for @GEG_org @Grand_Continent #CoFoE

Reactions welcome! geopolitique.eu/en/articles/ci…

Might of interest to:
@Conf_Observ @AndrewDuffEU @PDurandOfficiel @EnricoLetta @MESandbu @Shahinvallee @CBeaune @jonhenley @adam_tooze @ManonAubryFr @DomenecD @daniel_freund @dubravkasuica @danielboffey @valentinapop @HankeVela @maiadelabaume @MatinaStevis #CoFoE