October 2023

The CoFoE, Conference on the Future of Europe, expressed clear aspirations from European
citizens, which must be met with credible proposals to move forward in the next phase of the
European project. This Report aims at contributing for the current debate on EU internal reform.

After a painful financial crisis, we were engaged in finding solutions to cope with climate change
and making the best of the digital transformation. Then, we were confronted with an unprece dented pandemic and, more recently with war back in our continent.

Humankind is struggling with existential challenges, and global governance is being derailed
by multipolar rivalry. It is high time for us Europeans to re-invent our common political creation
– the European Union – for new times ahead. We need stronger tools to assert our democratic
choices, our sovereignty and our international cooperation.

This Report was prepared with a unique blend of high-level expertise from constitutional law,
to political science, political economy and other social sciences, diversified national belongings
and political experience from all political institutions. After intensive discussion among us and
follow-up of the CoFoE debates, this expert group is coming up with a contribution for new developments after this conference.

This Report on “EU treaties – why they need targeted changes” is organised in three major parts:
Part 1: focusing on the key challenges ahead and making the case for new European public
goods and the way to deliver in security, external action, climate change, digital transformation,
education, social cohesion, gender equality and health;
Part 2: developing the means to deliver these European public goods: citizenship, democracy but also economic governance;
Part 3: how far are treaty changes needed? Let us be precise and identify what can be done with
the current EU treaties and what cannot be done. Detailed proposals are made all over the Report and a summary is presented in the final chapter. The possible methods to change the EU treaties are then identified.