On 12 April 2022, the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, took part in the meeting of the European Union’s General Affairs Council in Luxembourg, at which ministers held a debate on the course towards the conclusion of the Conference on the Future of Europe due on 9 May, as well as the next steps to implement the Conference proposals.
The meeting also included the fourth discussion on the state of affairs with regard to the rule of law in five EU Member States: Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands and Austria. The discussion was built on the European Commission’s second annual Rule of Law Report published on 20 July 2021.
In his comments on the Conference on the Future of Europe, Edgars Rinkēvičs underlined that citizens’ role in the development of recommendations should be preserved, while preventing political interference. Latvia stands up for contributions gathered through the multilingual digital platform, which was accessible to every European, to be taken on board in the preparation of proposals. In view of the platform being one of the core elements of the Conference on the Future of Europe and its content comprising opinions contributed by more than 500,000 Europeans, the ideas expressed through the platform must feed into the Conference proposals.
The Minister also called for a larger role to be assigned to the representatives of national events in processing recommendations, and attaching special importance to recommendations that reflect the interests of less protected groups of population. This is necessary for making the process more inclusive and enriching the debate with a broader perspective presented by citizens. It would be of equal importance to ensure transparency and accountability after the Conference when reporting on what has been accomplished and obtaining a regular feedback from citizens.