The Conference on the Future of Europe is at a crossroads. The decisive question is: will the Conference Plenary be able and willing to take charge of this Conference, develop a parliament-like dynamic and include perspectives previously excluded, or will it remain an exclusionary political talking shop and risk enabling the extreme right? This piece, […]
On 10-12 December 2021, a group of 200 randomly selected citizens met at the EUI in Florence to discuss ‘democracy, rights, rule of law and security’ as part of a Citizens’ Panel within the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). During the event, members of the Young EUI Democracy Forum were on the ground, […]
While there is an abundance of (quantitatively oriented) surveys on citizen attitudes towards Europe, here I argue that a mixed approach, in which citizens are not only political objects in a pre-fabricated design, but actively engage and articulate their subjective positions, is preferable and brings rich insights. This is the aim of a recently held […]
“I think everybody thought it was a scam,” says Daniel, a 21-year-old business student from the Netherlands. We’re talking in Florence, where I’m serving as an unofficial observer of a three-day in-person weekend of deliberation in which 200 randomly selected citizens are discussing ‘democracy, rights, rule of law and security’ as part of the Conference […]
This post is part of a series of pieces analysing the preliminary findings of an ongoing SenseMaker survey conducted by Citizens Take Over Europe to gauge public attitudes on the Conference on the Future of Europe. The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) is taking place during a crucial moment: on the one hand […]
This post is part of a series of pieces analysing the preliminary findings of an ongoing SenseMaker survey conducted by Citizens Take Over Europe to gauge public attitudes to the Conference on the Future of Europe. The Conference on the Future of Europe is a one-off participatory exercise that has the potential to change the […]
Recently, the need for citizen participation and involvement in EU decision-making has been felt more than ever. While some experiments, such as the European Convention of 2003, have prompted some positive outcomes for citizen engagement, it is only now that the recent deliberative wave in Europe and beyond is taking high effect. Drawing on the […]
Harnessing our collective power and intelligence to create a culture of digitally enhanced citizen participation across borders. At the end of the 18th century, the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham was obsessed with the idea of a perfect prison, which he called the panopticon. In his countless drawings of circular cells arranged concentrically around a tower, […]
What can the EU Convention and the French Climate Convention tell us about how to develop successful models for deliberative democracy? Experiments with deliberative assemblies – whether successful or otherwise – offer valuable learning experiences for all involved with the incipient ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’ (CoFoE). Among recent examples, the ‘European Convention’ of […]
Drought, deforestation, lack of access to clean water and green energy sources. This is just a snapshot of some of the environmental challenges faced by communities in rural Kenya, and shared by participants of Kenya’s first Green Academy. The Green Academy brings together 21 young people from different backgrounds and diverse regions of the country […]