欧洲未来大会:欧盟制度创新的新实验

Conference on the Future of Europe:A New Experiment of the EU’s Institutional Innovation

"欧洲未来大会"是在多重危机引发的欧盟治理困境下,欧盟转向强化公民参与以增强其合法性的一次制度创新尝试。它得到了欧洲议会、欧盟委员会、欧盟理事会及欧盟27国不同程度的支持,但"欧洲未来大会"的发展面临欧盟各主体间的博弈、公民参与缺位下的新旧问题以及"条约改革赤字"三大难题。对此,"欧洲未来大会"进行了有益的探索,在暂缓欧盟机构的激烈博弈下,通过搭建自下而上的参与式民主与自上而下的精英决策相结合的公民参与体系,推动公民科学、高效参与的同时对促进欧盟条约改革形成推力。然而就目前而言,该实验性尝试潜力与隐患并存,"欧洲未来大会"的发展走向取决于欧盟及各成员国的诚意和政治智慧。

After experiencing a multiple of crises which have increasingly exposed the dilemma of the EU governance,the EU has turned to the Conference on the Future of Europe(CoFoE)as a democratic experiment aimed to enhance its legitimacy by strengthening citizen participation.This initiative was embraced,to different degrees,by the European Parliament,the European Commission,the Council and the 27 Member States.However,a successful CoFoE is faced with three major challenges including the inter-institutional rivalries,the newly-emerged and long-standing difficulties that the EU has had with citizen participation,and the treaty reform deficit.As a laboratory for democracy,the CoF oE introduced a new institutional method that originally combined bottom-up citizens’participation with top-down elite decision-making mechanisms,which temporarily suspended the disputes between the EU institutions,effectively promoted citizen participation and demonstrated the potential for treaty reform.Nevertheless,due to the current situations,both potentials and risks exist as to the CoFoE,whose future direction will be determined by the will and political wisdom of both the EU and its member states.