2 May 2022

On 29 and 30 April, the plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe met in Strasbourg for the last time to finalise its proposals. After two sessions (at end March and early April) discussing the preliminary proposals presented by the nine working groups, the Plenary approved the 49 final proposals that will be included in the final report of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

The European citizens who took part in the Conference over the last twelve months, also through the multilingual digital platform, are asking the European Union for a greater commitment to reducing inequality and poverty through strategies including, for example, minimum wages, equal access to affordable healthcare, a stronger role for a sustainable energy policy, the creation of joint armed forces for defence purposes, the redistribution of asylum seekers between EU countries, qualified majority voting in the Council to decide on matters that currently require unanimity, and the revision of the European electoral system with transnational lists for the election of the European Parliament.

These are some of the proposals approved which, as Undersecretary Amendola stated in his address to the plenary session, are "the result of a process of participatory democracy that strengthens the institutions. A response to the crises we are facing, to write together the agenda of a Europe that must revise and change its Treaties."

Upon conclusion of the two-day work, Undersecretary Amendola commented in a tweet: "It is a future-oriented plenary: Europe is aware it must change and defend its values."

The final document will be presented during the Europe Day ceremony on 9 May.