MEP Alfred Sant has voted in favour of the motion in the European Parliament regarding the Future of Europe conference but he expressed doubts on whether the Conference will be worthwhile.

The European Commission is committed to holding a Conference on the Future of Europe starting in 2020 with a proposal enshrined in the political guidelines of the European Commission. Three Commissioners Dubravka Suica, Maros Sefcovic and Vera Jourova will work together to lead the Commission’s work on the conference. The President of the Commission von der Leyen has suggested that the European Parliament should take the lead and chair the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Having been a member of the Convention on a European Constitution in the 1990’s, former Prime Minister Alfred Sant states that he has seen at close range how this kind of gathering can excel debating worthy ideas and proposals but lose contact with the concrete realities of getting nation-states to cooperate with each other on a give-and-take basis.

“Theoretical ideas about federalism or its contrary, both enthusiastically proclaimed, take front row. Documents are adopted that are far reaching but also far from the day-to-day aspirations of people. The danger remains that discussion of the tasks that could realistically be achieved by tomorrow is obfuscated by what basically amount to verbiage describing visions about what should be done by next month. Tomorrow’s tasks are then delayed while next month’s vision never becomes reality”, said Sant.

Among the areas, which could fall victim to this problem are immigration, the banking union, progress to combat climate change and the promotion of real equality.

Sant concluded an explanation of his vote to the European Parliament saying that he hopes this will not be the fate of the Future of Europe conference.