'You know, this conference has no legitimacy': Delegitimisation of the CoFoE in the European Parliament

Abstract

Speaker: Jan Kotýnek Krotký, University of Wrocław Discussant: Alvaro Oleart, Université Libre de Bruxelles The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), hosted by the European Parliament (EP), aimed to bolster EU democracy through citizen engagement. As explored, the biggest political groups in the EP (S&D, Renew, EPP) supported launching the conference and managed to shape its agenda and debates (Johansson and Raunio 2022). This paper broadens the scope of analysis by providing a full picture of partisan positions towards the CoFoE. Based on the roll-call votes, text analysis of the motions for resolutions and plenary debates, the speaker argues that partisan positions over the CoFoE were underpinned by their ideological stances constructed around the EU. On the one hand, the Left, Eurosceptic minded group, although signed the resolution developed by the pro-European groups, had very low voting cohesion, demonstrating a certain level of contestation over the issue. On the other, the right-wing ECR and ID clearly opposed the CoFoE and framed it as a top-down process highjacked by “EU elites” and lacking public attention. By emphasising the representation bias of the citizens’ panels, they delegitimised the Conference in their political narrative. Although such negative framing was dictated primarily by the ideological position of the Eurosceptic groups, their criticism should not be dismissed as completely unsubstantiated, as it raises important questions of legitimacy of such a deliberative exercise. The findings of this paper have broader implications for designing deliberative settings in the future, such as EU-wide citizens’ assemblies, as well as ensuring better synergy between participatory and representative dimensions of the EU democracy.