CoFoE: for Yves Bertoncini, "we should continue the experiment with a convention"

France 24: What was the atmosphere of this Conference for the Future of Europe

Yves Bertoncini:

It's a special atmosphere.

Already because this Conference is made up of members who come from different countries but also from diverse backgrounds.

The representatives of the citizens' panel bring a lot of fresh air, they are enthusiastic to discover Europe, the European Parliament.

We can see that they are happy to be there and to give their opinion on the future of Europe.

Thanks to them, it is quite an invigorating exercise.

If you look at the other components, the European Parliament is well represented too, by motivated people who bring energy, which is less the case at the level of national parliaments and governments, which sent larger proportions of Eurosceptics, less involved.

Finally, the representatives of civil society, of which I am a part, are accustomed to European discussions and seized this opportunity without excessive hopes.

But the atmosphere was especially strange at the start of the Conference, when it was launched virtually and forced on May 9, 2021, after a year of pandemic.

Because of this delay and the health context, the hemicycle was half empty and the Conference lacked cohesion.

Today, things are much better, but unfortunately this only happens when the Conference is coming to an end.

Would you like to continue the discussions

I think we should have extended the experience and kept the two years initially planned.

A year is not enough.

The French authorities have decided to put an end to it but I regret it.

This should at least be pursued by other means, with a convention for example.

A European convention which would be launched after the fact but which would be a little less civic, with the institutions, the parliamentarians.

It would prolong the momentum.

Are you still satisfied with the results

Yes.

The nine groups divided by themes produced good documents, based on the formulations of the citizen panels.

From that point of view, they are useful documents.

The citizens are rather wise and reasonable, guided by the idea that there is strength in unity, while some of them are far from being enthusiastic about Europe.

So I think what will come out of it will be good.

The question is what will be the fate of these productions.

We can justly think that this Conference is yet another Theodule committee that will not give anything concrete

We never said that all the proposals will be accepted and implemented, that's for sure.

There will be disappointments.

But the participants will have gone through the learning process of European fellowship.

There are two elements that suggest that all this will not have been for nothing.

First, the proposals are largely based on citizen impulses.

We mobilized these citizens in all the Member States but also at the pan-European level because that is what Europe is: having a Latvian debate with a Spaniard, an Italian and a Slovenian.

It's not just debating between French people.

It's a great civic impulse.

Then, everything is done in a particular geopolitical context – marked by the war in Ukraine but also the Covid-19 pandemic, climate challenges, the rise of China, etc.

– which pushes for the unity of Europe.

For these two reasons, there is perhaps a chance that the results of the Conference will not get bogged down in traditional European interinstitutional negotiations.

But it will be necessary to manage to combine the civic and geopolitical context which is buoyant and the institutional emergencies as well as the divisions between the Member States which are less, but which are underlying if we are talking about the future of Europe.

You talk about the current geopolitical context with the war in Ukraine.

Within the framework of this Conference, you are part of the "Europe in the world" group.

Certainly.

And it's a good illustration of what a citizen's report can be useful for.

Generally speaking, citizens believe that unity is strength.

They are aware that Europeans represent only 5 to 6% of the world's population and that they are no match for some of their neighbours.

When the war in Ukraine broke out, the citizens were quite wise.

They did not call for a European army but for national armies that can be mobilized within an Atlantic framework, and also within a European framework for self-defence.

When I arrived at this Conference, I said to myself that the citizens were going to propose a European army.

We know, especially in France, how difficult it is to do that.

The European Defense Community was rejected in 1954. The Europe of defence, common armament, is difficult.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that the proposals were not in this direction but rather for joint mobilizations.

Another example, the citizens reflected on the production of weapons but above all on political control and the question of their export.

Their proposal was to look at how to produce these weapons but above all how to export them correctly, that is to say that they did not want these weapons to be sent to dictators, for example.

It is a good example carried by the citizens.

The arms manufacturers are less scrupulous.

This collective deliberation, both civil and political, makes it possible to identify elements of European compromise.

This is an illustration of the joint, intelligent citizen reflection of the Europeans, who confront their ideas with the parliamentarians and who manage to take into account the evolving geopolitical context.

From this emerge some fairly solid proposals that deserve to be looked at.

It is a stone in the European garden.

Those who protect us from Putin are the Americans and NATO, so we have to build up more muscles.

It is useful to hear these proposals and necessary to think about them.

We don't know what will happen in a few years.

And it's good that we're starting to think about this right now, because it takes time to establish political control, the production of weapons.

I hope that everyone will take the time to take an interest in it because if this is not the case, we are exposing ourselves to disappointments, including in France.

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