Europe - The Future: Join the Club

Enlargement of the European Union from fifteen to perhaps twenty-eight members is approaching fast. The next two years are crucial for those both inside and outside to prepare for a very different sort of club. This pre-accession period is a golden opportunity to include the candidate countries as never before, engaging governments and people at an emotional, intellectual and practical level.

The World Today Updated 23 October 2020 4 minute READ

Elizabeth Mills

Asia Research Analyst, World Markets Research Centre, London

The convention on the Future of Europe opened in Brussels on February 28 and will run for a year.

It holds regular, public meetings as well as briefings for the European Council. With its broad composition and wide-ranging debate, it is intended to forge closer links between the European Union and its citizens. The one hundred and five participants are drawn from the governments and national parliaments of both member states and the thirteen countries applying to join, as well as from the European Parliament and the Commission. In parallel, a Forum has been established from a network of civil society organisations to feed into the Convention.

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