With 494 votes for and 147 votes against, EP members adopted the draft resolution, which will now be discussed by the European Council and the European Commission, after which it will be returned to the EP for final confirmation.
The conference was presented at the start of today's discussion in the EP by the Croatian member of the European Commission, Dubravka Suica, who is in charge of democracy and demography and who has been entrusted by the EC to organise the conference.
Leaders of EU member-states in December asked then future EU chair Croatia to prepare a position of the EU Council on the Conference on the Future of Europe.
"This is a key moment in Europe's political history," Suica said in Strasbourg.
The resolution, which deals mostly with the methodology of the coming debate on the functioning of European institutions, stresses that during the discussion on the EU's future the EP should have the leading role, as the only European institution elected directly by citizens.
However, the resolution reiterates, as repeated by EP members during today's plenary session, that European citizens should have a key role, contributing with their ideas, including via web tools.
Also proposed is a plenary session of the conference to include EP members, representatives of the European Council, national parliaments, the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Committee of the Regions, forums and citizens' representatives.
Sessions should be held at least twice in a period of six months, during EP plenaries.
The resolution also reads that the system of lead candidate (Spitzenkandidat), which was not followed in last year's elections, should be considered for the 2024 European elections, as should a proposal for transnational slates.
It was proposed that the conference should start on May 9, Europe Day, when the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, a document delivered by former French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and believed to be the founding text of European integration, will be marked.
The conference is expected to be completed by the summer of 2022.