TOWARDS A MORE SOCIAL, DEMOCRATIC AND FEDERAL EUROPE

On 6 February 2020, just a few days after the departure of the UK from the European Union, and a few weeks before the generalised application of pandemic-mandated lockdowns throughout the European Union, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Group in the European Parliament convened a seminar on ?The political vision of the EU?s constitutional future?. It was organised to lay the groundwork for the elaboration of a Group position on the constitutional development of the EU, originally started by the S&D working group in the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. The position paper was finally adopted, after several and sometimes lively debates, on the Group?s plenary meeting of 10 June 2020. The present book compiles the presentations of all the speakers at this Group seminar, including Iratxe García Pérez, S&D Group president, Sergei Stanishev, president of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and Maro? ?ef?ovi?, vice president of the European Commission for Inter-Institutional Affairs. The Conference on the Future of Europe, initiated on 9 May 2021 and planned before the start of the coronavirus pandemic is now more necessary than ever. The Recovery Plan and the Health Union are constitutional mutations that must be consolidated institutionally. We hope that this publication can contribute to enrich the proposals and the debate of the European socialists at this crucial stage.