The Conference on the Future of Europe was a major participatory process jointly organised by the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. It provided a unique opportunity for citizens, civil society and other stakeholders to openly share their ideas, in any of the 24 official EU languages, on what they expected from the European Union.

A dedicated web platform (https://futureu.europa.eu/en/) was set up as the main hub of the Conference, functioning as the single point for collecting all…

The Science for Policy report presenting the results of the research Making Eat Together was recently published. It presents the results of a three-year qualitative research (2017-2020) on the school meal beyond nutrition, involving several primary and secondary schools located in Italy, Portugal and Germany. The Science for Policy Report is available here.

What is this research about?

Over the last decade, food and eating habits have increasingly become issues of…

This article is written by the European Year of Youth team. It takes a look back through the achievements and legacy of 2022, the European Year of Youth. 

To highlight how the green and digital transitions offer opportunities for young people and to bring a youth perspective to EU policies, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared 2022 the European Year of Youth. 

Within the European Year of Youth, the European Union has striven to give young people more and better opportunities for the future. To use President von der Leyen’s words “Europe needs all of…

Over 500 panelists from the Conference on the Future of Europe were present in the European Parliament hemicycle on December 2nd during a follow-up event. Citizens came from all member States to learn what has been done with their proposals from the four Panels. Their concrete recommendations to Europe were officially handed over last on Europe’s Day last May. Vice-President Dubravka Šuica, Co-Chair of the Conference on the Future of Europe and Commissioner for Democracy and Demography, leading the Commission’s work on deliberative democracy, explains how the Commission has taken action…

This article is written by Stefan Sindelar, CEO, European Capital of Democracy (non-profit organisation).

Efforts to undermine European democracy have been underway for some time - and now, democracy needs us. In its current fragile state, fighting for its future is more important than ever. You can do just that – by joining the European Capital of Democracy’s Citizens' Jury, playing a hands-on role in strengthening Europe’s democratic future!

Each year, a different city will be designated as the European…

This article is written by Graham Allen, Co-Founder of the Deliberative Democracy and Citizens’ Convention Cohort of the Summit for Democracy and Convenor, CCUKDemocracy

As autocracy suffers a setback in the US midterms, there is more good news breaking this time on deliberative democracy. The European Commission and Ireland have just signed up to become the political co-leads of a new Deliberative Democracy and Citizens’ Assembly Cohort of the Summit for Democracy…

The 4th Public Participation and Deliberative Democracy Festival took place over two days from 20th – 21st October, 2022, in different locations: Brussels, Belgium; Ispra, Italy and Online (Zoom). Over the two days, approximately 150 attended in Brussels 50 in Ispra, and over 600 joining via livestream and Zoom.

Overall, the Festival showcased many citizen engagement initiatives, especially dedicated to youth participation, demonstrating that a diversity of work is flourishing in the field. Many of the sessions…

On the second day of the Public Participation and Deliberative Democracy Festival (21st October 2022), Particitiz (represented by Cécile Molle and Dimitri Lemaire), in collaboration with Visuality EU (represented by Joyce Van Kerckhove) and the participation of Emilien Paulis (post doctoral researcher in political science at the university of luxembourg), organized a session on how the architecture of parliaments could be adapted to participatory democracy.

Inspired by the exhibition "Living in Democracy. The architecture of parliaments" organized for the 30th anniversary of the…

Caterina, Nicolas, Kacper and Matous... four young Europeans, with four different views towards the European Union, but who have all experienced the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). All four were invited by Missions Publiques to join a panel of the 4th Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Festival on October 21st, 2022, organised by the Joint Research Centre in Brussels. The Conference was a turning point in their lives as young European citizens. They now expect the institutions to live up to the hopes raised by this unique process.

An eye-opening…

During the Public Participation and Deliberative Democracy Festival participants in Ispra had a chance to experience how honeybees take decisions and reflect on how this animal model can be applied also in human collective decision-making. 

The Pollinator Ambassadors, founded and led by Nynke Blömer and Nadine Schuller, had the great pleasure to introduce the Festival participants to the inner workings of a honeybee swarm. “The Hive” is an immersive, interactive,…