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.