As the Conference on the Future of Europe approaches its conclusion, MEPs assess its Plenary’s recommendations and the overall process in a debate. They stress that the process to change the EU’s founding documents should be activated in order to endow the EU with the competences to act on the proposed new policy areas. Statements by Guy VERHOFSTADT, CoFoE Co-Chair, Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), Iratxe GARCIA PEREZ (S&D, ES), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA).

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

Strasbourg

future of the European Union (T)

RANGEL, Paulo (EPP, PT)

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Iratxe (S&D, ES)

FREUND, Daniel (Greens/EFA, DE)

Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe

conference on the future of Europe (T)

The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe: statements by Guy VERHOFSTADT, CoFoE Co-Chair, Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), Iratxe GARCIA PEREZ (S&D, ES), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA)

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/30226117/1651687902154_I224733Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

Title:  The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe: statements by Guy VERHOFSTADT, CoFoE Co-Chair, Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), Iratxe GARCIA PEREZ (S&amp;D, ES), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA)

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, Co-Chair COFOE, I'm very pleased that there was a so big majority to approve and to support the conclusions of the conference on which we have worked a year. And then I'm very pleased that a big majority also has decided to launch a convention to start a reform of our institutions, to reform the treaties, because it's one of the big requests of the citizens

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, Co-chair of the COFOE, We need to continue this practise of citizens involvement and citizens participation. I think democracy in the future will be a combination of representative democracy and participatory democracy, including citizens participation

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, Co-chair of the COFOE, What the citizens expect now is that their recommendations and the conclusions of the conference will be implemented, will become a reality. And that's a lot of work to do. For example, abolishing unanimity, ending the vetoes, establishing a transnational list, a trans national democracy, creating a health union, an energy union, defence union

SOUNDBITE (English), Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), What I would like to hear from them, from President MACRON and from President VON DER LEYEN is that they are ready to do to give this follow up to the Conference that is to organise a Convention. And together the institutions will be able to prepare a new draft of the treaties, changing naturally the matters that were, I'd say, debated and then summed up by the citizens in this conference.

SOUNDBITE (English), Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), We are very careful and we prepare a very solid and good document saying what are the files, what are the matters that we want to change in a treaty change, I think that we have a chance to convince, to persuade the council to organise the convention. And so this is the process that we have ahead of us in the next months.

SOUNDBITE (English), Iratxe GARC&#205;A P&#201;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), Our position as a parliament to understand what the European citizens want to build a more Europe. It's very clear during more than one year, all citizens, civil society, trade unions, enterprise, national parliament with the European Parliament put in common and share the different point of view about how can we improve. The European Union was a wonderful exercise. We had the opportunity to listen to his teachings and to know what is the ideas. And today is the end of the process, but the beginning to the reality. All of these dreams, ideas and suggestions

SOUNDBITE (English), Iratxe GARC&#205;A P&#201;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), We need the conventions to do reality, all of these things, because we need more social Europe. We need to say, how can we improve the life for the citizens, for the young people, to improve the equality between women and men, to support the children? We need to to do reality, all of these things, and to adapt to a wider instruments to our European institutions, trying to understand that it's necessary to change

SOUNDBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), Citizens have made 325 proposals on a more social Europe, on more investment against climate change, on better protection of of their freedoms and rights. They want truly European citizenship. So all these things, they need treaty change. And that is what the European Parliament will now put forward.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daniel FREUND (Greens/EFA, DE), Citizens want not just one or two of those proposals to become reality. They want all of these proposals to become reality islands up to us to make sure that that none of these proposals are forgotten. Some need treaty change, some need new laws. Some need a change in the budget. It's up to us as politicians to to follow up and to some degree, for citizens to make sure at the next European election that they vote for those people that fight for these proposals.