Presented as the highest achievement of the EU democracy, the initiative is nothing but the proof of the incapability of an entire leadership with no vision
Conference on the future of Europe. Everybody has been talking since the beginning, since the initiative was launched in 2019. An unprecedented event, presented as the most prominent moment in the European democratic life. The Conference (also known as COFOE) is «a citizen-led series of debates and discussions that will enable people from across Europe to share their ideas and help shape our common future». That’s how the European Commission described this historic moment never experienced before. Whatever the intention can be, please forget about enthusiasm and call the COFOE for what is in reality: a failure. A failure of an entire political system and its leadership.
Why is the COFOE a failure? In order to better understand we need to come back to the past, when everything started. When in 1951 the treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was signed, no Conference on the future of Europe took place. When six years later the European Economic Community (EEC) was founded, no citizen-led debates were held. The history of the European integration has always been about political decisions. Everything happened because of governments working together on behalf of their respective peoples. That’s how representative democracy works.
Citizens are called to elect men and women who have the duty to take initiatives and decisions for them. Today this system is not functioning anymore. Elected people are incapable of taking any initiative, so they are obliged to ask their electors what to do.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, stated that «people need to be at the very centre of all our policies». She also expressed the wish that «all Europeans will actively contribute to the Conference on the Future of Europe and play a leading role in setting the European Union’s priorities».
Here comes the real issue. It shouldn't be up to citizens to set up political priorities, politicians should. If the latter cannot make it out, then they should be replaced by more capable and courageous decision makers. Yes, courage. It is a matter of courage and visions. The so called leaders and the supposed-to-be leaders don’t lead. They don’t decide. They have no vision, and so they cannot provide perspectives.
