BERLIN — Let the big thinking about the EU's future begin!

Germany and France have drawn up a blueprint for a two-year "Conference on the Future of Europe" aimed at overhauling nearly all aspects of how the EU functions, including possible treaty changes if need be, with a goal of making the bloc "more united and sovereign," according to a document seen by POLITICO.

The blueprint proposes that EU leaders hold a first discussion on the conference at their summit in Brussels next month. It calls for a two-phase initiative, with the first starting early next year and focused on "EU democratic functioning," especially "regarding elections and designations in key positions."

That's unencrypted code for fixing an election and leadership selection process widely perceived as badly broken after EU leaders this year cast aside the Spitzenkandidaten or "lead candidates" from the major political families and instead made the surprise choice of naming Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president — the top executive post.

Supporters of the lead candidate process, particularly in the European Parliament, were infuriated that the top job went to someone who had not campaigned for it — even though the heads of state and government on the European Council had issued clear warnings they would not be bound to the system, which is not written into the EU treaties.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in particular, had pushed for the adoption of a new system of transnational candidate lists that would have created some Continent-wide competition in the European Parliament election. But leaders said there was not enough time for such a big change, and instead stuck to the existing system of 28 different national elections to fill the parliament's 751 seats. The blueprint specifically calls for looking at "transnational lists," the "lead candidate system" and "issues related to citizens' participation."

The second, even more crucial phase of the Conference on the Future of Europe, would focus on "policy priorities" and it would last for two years, to be book-ended by the German and French presidencies of the Council of the EU, which occur in the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2022, respectively.

The document was circulated to EU member countries on Monday and is expected to be discussed by ambassadors on Wednesday.

The two-page blueprint does not offer a huge amount of detail, but calls for an event of large ambition, that would be led by a "senior European personality" who would chair a steering group of experts and require a major role of all three EU institutions: the Commission, Council and Parliament.

Former Belgian Prime Minister and longtime MEP Guy Verhofstadt has been mentioned frequently in Brussels as one of the potential contenders for the chair position.

The concept of such a conference on the EU's future was proposed by Macron in his letter to Europeans in April ahead of the European Parliament election and has already been endorsed by Commission President-elect von der Leyen, and the apparent rushed publication of the blueprint suggests that officials in Paris and Berlin wanted to get it distributed to EU countries ahead of a Parliament vote this week to confirm the new College of Commissioners.

The document also seems designed to address recent tensions in the Franco-German relationship that have begun causing substantial unease in Brussels and capitals across Europe. Macron's penchant for disruptive politics, including his recent criticism of NATO, has grated on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has made little secret of the fact she is growing weary of her younger French colleague's brazen exuberance.

At various points since Macron's election in 2017, other EU leaders have shown far less enthusiasm for his demands for greater federalism and EU sovereignty — an appetite that seems out of step with the current mood of voters.

That said, many leaders also recognize some of the limits of the existing EU treaties, and a need for revision and renewal in response to numerous factors, including Brexit, rising nationalism and right-wing extremism, and the upending of transatlantic relations since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The blueprint calls generally for an overhaul across many broad policy areas.

"The Conference should address all issues at stake to guide the future of Europe with a view to making the EU more united and sovereign," it declares, "such as Europe’s role in the world and its security/defence, neighborhood, digitalisation, climate change, migration, fight against inequalities, our 'social market economy' model (including social rights, industrial and innovation policy, trade, EMU, competitiveness), the rule of law and European values."

It also calls for "bottom-up" citizen engagement, such as panels of randomly selected EU citizens to make proposals, as well as thematic policy conferences to be held in many different EU countries, and it calls for hard proposals, not vague conclusions.

"The Conference should commit itself already in the inter-institutional mandate to produce tangible and concrete results," the blueprint says, adding: "The final document with recommendations should be presented to the EUCO for debate and implementation."