Ahead of this weekend’s opening of the Conference on the Future of Europe, the co-presidents of The Left in The European Parliament have criticised inter-institutional squabbling as further evidence for why a citizens-lead EU reform is so badly needed:

Co-President Manon Aubry (France Insoumise, France) said:

“The process of defining the role and composition of the assembly for the upcoming Conference on Future of Europe has taken too long and has underlined the difficulties and limits of the proposed framework in providing the profound changes that the EU requires.”

“What we really need is the broad involvement of citizens, which will lead to a clear change of rules and new EU treaties which have failed to address the climate and social crisis.”

Co-President Martin Schirdewan (Die Linke, Germany) added:

”The Conference on the Future of Europe is threatening to degenerate into a mere talking shop. The European institutions have been arguing for over a year about what the Conference should and is allowed to do. What falls by the wayside is the actual goal of the Conference, namely to give citizens, trade unions, social movements and NGOs a voice in our democracy. So far, the only thing that we can agree on is the start date – and that was the least controversial part. The rest though has ended up looking more like a tragedy.”

“If, by the end of this Conference and at the instigation of our citizens, there will be a strengthening of the EU Parliament’s rights vis-à-vis member state governments and the Commission, then it would be regarded as a success for all voters. As the voice of the trade union and social movements, The Left will keep fighting for their concerns to be heard, and for the treaties to be changed for a social EU. For this, we need the introduction of a social protocol into the European treaties,” he concluded.