Given the disparate views, interests and risk perceptions among the twenty-seven EU countries, far-reaching innovations to be introduced by the Conference on the Future of Europe appear unlikely, writes Michel Leigh. Michael Leigh is the academic director of European Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna and a senior fellow at Bruegel in Brussels. This Conference, which opened on 9 May, was originally proposed by France and Germany to fit in with their next elections. It was postponed by twelve months because of the pandemic and is now squeezed into one year instead of two. Its outcome is meant to coincide with President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election bid in April 2022.