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Former Belgian Prime Minister Verhofstadt: controversial occupation
Photo: Olivier Matthys / AP
The German Presidency of the Council of the EU is coming to an end and the member states urgently need to consult about the time after the corona pandemic.
But the start of the planned EU future conference is still blocked by dissent about its future presidency.
The European Parliament's proposal to put Belgian ex-Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt at the helm has not yet found the necessary support among the member states.
This is reported by the dpa news agency.
The two-year dialogue was originally supposed to start in May - but this was not possible because of the corona pandemic.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, "If we can do anything about the pandemic, we want to start before the end of the year."
But there is still criticism of Verhofstadt's personality.
According to the dpa, an EU diplomat said: “Verhofstadt has no chance in the council.
Anyone who sticks to it prevents the future conference from starting. ”According to dpa, the German Minister of State Michael Roth also said after a conference of the European ministers that all questions had still not been clarified.
According to the news site »Politico«, several governments reject Verhofstadt because he is an advocate of European federalism.
The European Parliament, however, criticizes the fact that the Council of Heads of State and Government has not yet made its own official proposal.
Danish ex-prime minister apparently favorite of the heads of government
According to »Politico«, the former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt is currently the favorite among the EU heads of state for the presidency.
France and Germany are said to have already agreed on Thorning-Schmidt.
However, the proposal has not yet been confirmed.
The conference aims to enable citizens to participate more closely in European issues.
The conference will deal with big questions, from climate protection to migration, from Europe's role on the world stage to questions of social inequality.
Von der Leyen has meanwhile announced details of the conference format.
There should be a multilingual online platform.
MEPs could also organize events.
She left it open which topics should be specifically discussed.
In a position paper by the CDU / CSU MPs in the EU Parliament, it is said that the aim is to initiate a far-reaching reform process.
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fek / dpa