On 2 December 2022, the European Parliament (EP) hosted a feedback event at which representatives from the EU institutions and over 500 citizens assessed the follow-up to the proposals agreed at the Conference on the Future of Europe in spring 2022 (→ eucrim 2/2022, 84-85 and briefing paper of the EP Research Service of 30 November 2022). The debate involved a wide range of topics, including:

• Institutional reforms that would be needed to implement the Conference’s proposals in their entirety, including those on the taxation of multinationals and cooperation in the external dimension of EU affairs;
• The digital transition;
• Migration-related challenges;
• Threats to European values and the EU budget;
• Revision of the EU Treaties and the potential activation of passerelle clauses in the existing framework;
• Making further improvements in the communication between the EU institutions;
• Lessons learned for participatory democracy.

MEPs stressed that the EP will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure that it fulfils its core mission of keeping the EU accountable towards all Europeans, while presenting concrete examples on how the Conference’s proposals have become key drivers in EP’s work. They reiterated Parliament’s call to establish a Convention to revise the EU Treaties (→ eucrim 2/2022, 85).

The Council has produced a comprehensive analysis of the proposals and related measures contained in the Conference’s final report. This analysis was updated in November 2022 in order to reflect the actions undertaken since 9 May by the EU institutions, especially the Council, to implement the Conference proposals.

On the eve of the feedback event, the Commission explained in a press release how it followed up to the Conference’s proposal by means of different types of responses. As a concrete follow-up to the Conference’s proposal to better embed European citizens in the policy-making process, the Commission hosted the first European Citizens' Panel in Brussels on 16 December 2022, which allowed citizens to provide their input on how to step up action to reduce food waste in the EU.