THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REPORT. Europe in a period of transition

HOW CAN PARTICIPATION IN THE CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF EUROPE BE IMPROVED FOR ORGANISED CIVIL SOCIETY AND CITIZENS? 31 responsible for proposing treaty reforms. So, the Single European Act was approved in 1986, and the Treaty on the European Union, also known as the Maastricht Trea- ty, in 1991. Subsequently, the Treaty of Amsterdam was approved in 1996 and the Treaty of Nice in 2000. From the Second Convention in 2002-2003 onwards, Treaty reform would also include representatives from in- stitutions: European Parliament, National Parliaments, Eu- ropean Commission and Representatives of the national governments. In other words, this was the end of exclusivity for the national government representatives. Although, ap- proval would subsequently be required from an Intergovern- mental Conference. From 2007 onwards, with the approval of theTreaty of Lisbon, the Convention formula was regulat- ed in the Treaty on the European Union, article 48. The Conference on the Future of Europe proposal is a more qualitative approach, differing in its attempt to take a step prior to the Convention, intending mainly to listen to citizens and civil society regarding the improvements that both policies and institutions and, when appropriate, the actual model of the European Union, must reform to adapt to the demands of the citizens and civil society. It is therefore not a pre-convention because this would be taking for granted that we are going to reform the Treaties which currently require a European Convention to be held. Therefore, it is a completely different mechanism that will bring together representatives of citizens and civil society alongside representatives from the institutions, on an equal footing of course as the President of the Eu- ropean Commission reminded us in her inaugural speech before the European Parliament on 17 June 2019. This is enormously relevant as, in one way or another, it is bringing to life the forecast from the Treaty on the European Union working from the Treaty of Lisbon in article 11.2 quoted above, referring to participative de- mocracy. Above all, this is happening for the first time, regarding constitutional matters, not only for different phases of legislative or political proposals.This is a matter of thinking collectively and making common proposals among representatives of citizens and civil society along- side institutional representatives. Furthermore, we should remember that the Euro- pean project originated from the demands, claims and actions of civil society at the end of World War II where, for three years, a set of social organisations were created and consolidated to vindicate the need to implement the supranational European project to avoid new armed clashes among Europeans. In other words, civil society is a substantial part of European construction and just as it boosted the start of European construction, it should also play a fundamental role in its reform. Origin and development The need to formalise political dialogue in organised civil society emerged as a continuation of citizen enquiries that have been run since 2017 in various Member States, particularly France.This is largely due to a boost from Pres- ident Macron in 2017 in his Sorbonne speech, raising the need to call citizen enquiries. Developing these enquiries revealed the need to take further steps and demonstrated that it was not enough just to consult, listen and propose. Structured political dialogue should be implemented be- tween civil society and representatives from European institutions to be able to produce a joint proposal. The president of the Commission compiled the outcry from civil society and the commitments to political parties who won the elections, giving political recognition to this social demand, which recognised the need and nature of these dialogues in the form of a European Conference. In her inaugural speech on 17 July 2019 in the Strasbourg European Parliament, President Ursula von der Leyen said “I want European citizens to play a leading and active part in building the future of our Union. I want them to have their say at a Conference on the Future of Europe, to start in 2020 and run for two years.” One year late because of the pandemic and partly due to lack of agreement between the institutions, final- ly, on Wednesday 10 March 2021, the Interinstitutional Declaration was signed regarding calling the Conference on the Future of Europe. This declaration was eventually