On 09 May 2022 – also Europe Day, which marks the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration – the Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) will present its final report to the presidents of EU institutions with a consolidated list of draft recommendations.
Of particular interest for the cultural sector should be the proposal # 48 “Culture and exchanges”, calling on the Member States with the support of the European Union to promote exchanges and multilingualism as a bridge to other cultures, to create opportunities to share European cultures and to protect European cultural heritage and culture. Above all, however, the proposal on Culture also states:
“In order to promote a culture of exchange and foster European identity and European diversity across different areas, the Member States, with the support of the European Union, should: (…) take steps to ensure that cultural professionals are sufficiently protected at EU level, particularly in any future crises, by adopting a legal statute at European level.” (Proposal 48.5)
The Conference on the Future of Europe was established to create a space for participatory democracy in the European Union and organized a series of citizen-led debates about central topics on the future of the Union. Made up by 80 citizens, together with 108 Members of the European Parliament, 108 Members of National Parliaments, 27 members of national citizens’ panels, as well as governments’ (54) and Commission’s representatives (3), the plenary of the Conference then adopted proposals on 49 objectives across 9 different thematic areas, amongst others based on the results of the European Citizens’ Panels, as well as almost 45.000 contributions recorded on the platform futureu.europe.eu and systematically organised in interim reports.
It was informed that, as an immediate follow-up to the Conference, the European Parliament will table a resolution to call for a revision of the Treaties pursuant to Article 48 of the Treaty of the EU, which could eventually lead, with a simple majority of the Council, to a decision to prepare such Treaty reforms. Such amendments would however then need to be greenlighted by all National Parliaments.
More information also here on the Culture Action Europe Website.