The Conference on the Future of Europe has begun on 9 May 2021. A goal of the process of reflection is to explore the question of what needs to improve in Europe, and the role it should play in the world. 

The Joint Presidency of the Conference on the Future of Europe also sets itself the objective of bringing together various visions for the future: a herculean task. Advocates of European federalism strive for a European federal state. National conservatives, on the other hand, want the EU to be understood as an alliance of nation states.

Different views on how the EU should look like in the future became clear again in negotiations on the 2021 – 2027 Multiannual Financial Framework, and the EU recovery fund. Here, the focus was placed on the Visegrád states that were often perceived as troublemakers, particularly in Western Europe. 

Throughout the Conference on the Future of Europe and beyond that it will be important to differentiate in line with European pluralism between challenging positions, and those which fundamentally contradict the spirit of the EU. In doing so, it is important not to evade the question about the relationship between national and European sovereignty.

Read the entire analysis here as a PDF. 
More information about the Conference on the Future of Europe here.