Page 13 - Conference on the Future of Europe -Beginning of a New European Union?

The conference began in spring 2021 and finished on May 9,
2022. At the closing ceremony in Strasbourg, the co-chairs of the
conference’s executive committee - Member of the European

Parliament and former Prime Minister of Belgium (1999-2008), Guy
Verhofstadt; French Minister of State for European Affairs, Clément
Beaune, and Vice President of the European Commission for

Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica, handed the documented
15
outcome of the conference - 49 recommendations on the further
development of the Union - to the President of the European
Parliament, Roberta Metsola, President Emmanuel Macron on behalf of

the Council Presidency and President of the European Commission,
Ursula von der Leyen.
It has to be stressed that the recommendations introduce

fundamental changes in administrating the EU. These changes will push
the Union towards deeper integration and internal consolidation,
strengthening supranationalism through expanding the competences of
EU institutions. The recommendations also call for reinforcing the

European identity and the further democratization of the Union.
Needless to say, the war in Ukraine has made a great impact on the final
shape of the recommendations.
Below, we would like to draw reader’s attention to those

recommendations which, from our point of view, bear special
importance given that their implementation may have a direct impact
on the future shape of the EU. The recommendations are presented in
topical groups in order to better comprehend their cumulative effect.

15 https://futureu.europa.eu/?locale=en
12