Julian Plottka Making the Conference on the Future of Europe a Success EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On the day, two years after French President Emmanuel Ma­cron proposed a conference on the future of Europe in a cam­paign speech, the then elected European Parliament gave its consent to the joint declaration on 4 March 2021. In the dec­laration, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the EU agree on key points of the»Confer­ence on the Future of Europe(CoFoE)«. It will start on 9 May 2021 and last until Spring 2022, to be concluded before the next French presidential elections. On a number of important aspects, the three institutions could not reach agreement. The executive board of more than 25 members and observers, which manages the conference, has to solve these issues as soon as possible as the timeframe is too limited. The board’s most urgent tasks include: – establishing itself as a smooth functioning conference leadership to cope with time pressure; – organising a listening phase, in which citizens – not EU institutions – set the agenda; – agreeing on the exact composition and working proce­dures of the conference, allowing for concrete out­comes to be delivered in less than one year; – establishing a conference structure that creates political ownership by the EU institutions, national governments and parliaments; – designing a methodology for the European citizens’ panels which fosters deliberation and can be imple­mented under restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic; – establishing a forum for organised civil society to partic­ipate in the CoFoE debates, possibly managed by the European Economic and Social Committee; – ensuring that the outcome of the conference will have an impact on the future of Europe and EU policies. If the board succeeds with preparing the conference until May 2021, the CoFoE can be turned into a ground-breaking experi­ment of transnational deliberative democracy. Especially involv­ing the Councils in EU-level deliberative democracy, creating a new form of Intergovernmentalism, could prove to be a major step forward, as national governments are sceptical of citizens’ and civil society’s participation in EU decision-making. However, even if the executive board manages to set up the conference within the given framework, it is less ambitious than the»European Convention 2.0« envisioned by the Eu­ropean Parliament. Therefore, the lesson to be learned by the European Parliament for the next European elections is: Do not trust election bids of a nominee for Commission Presi­dency who owes their nomination to the European Council. It should therefore stand firm on making the»Spitzenkandi­daten« system mandatory until 2024 to address the left­overs of the CoFoE in a sequel to the debate on the future of Europe.