The past ten years have witnessed incredible experimentation in citizen participation in public life and public matters around the globe and in Europe. New forms of citizen participation based on co-creation and deliberation have especially brought new hopes and new horizons for strengthening and rejuvenating democracy and counteracting democratic backsliding.

CC-DEMOS has sustained the previous and current von der Leyen’s Commission with the construction of a deliberative democracy infrastructure across EU Member States. Today, CC-DEMOS sustains the first Commission’s priority on a Free and Democratic Europe and the focus on developing a European Democracy Shield to protect European democracies and beyond. Late 2023, the European Commission adopted a Recommendation to Member States on Civic engagement in policymaking under the Defence of Democracy Package. This Recommendation is the EU legal basis that sustains the construction of a deliberative democracy infrastructure across EU Member States. 

Building capacity in citizen participation for public administrations at three levels of competence

Building capacity in citizen participation is among the working pillars of CC-DEMOS.

Between December 2022 and June 2024, CC-DEMOS has collaborated with Democracy X and ifok to design, test and develop a training offer on citizen participation that responded to different competence needs and objectives of public administrations and future trainers. Three levels of competence were addressed:

1. A basic level competence, for public administration professionals who seek a quick start guide onto citizen participation processes based on co-creation and deliberation.
2. An advanced level of competence, for public administration professionals who want to deep-dive into specific dimensions of citizen participation and master them.
3. A train-the-trainer level of competence, for public administration professionals as well as experts and practitioners of citizen participation who seek a comprehensive set of knowledge, competences and skills to coach and support public administration professionals on the organisation of citizen engagement processes.

Several pilots were conducted to test the quality and relevance of each specific training material for public administrations and future trainers. Pilots were run in-person in Denmark and Poland - in local language - as well as online in English in June and October 2023, for a total of five pilots encompassing the basic and the advanced modules. In March 2024, the last in-person pilot was conducted in Denmark to test the Training of Trainers.  

The first edition of the training

The first edition of the training is now ready to be offered in English in the EU Academy platform. It combines self-paced learning material as well as synchronous and asynchronous activities moderated by citizen engagement experts and practitioners from Democracy X, Missions Publiques and Fundacja Pole Dialogu.

Registrations are opening on 26 February 2025 for all three levels of competence in our dedicated CoP webpage.

When the next edition?

The second edition of the training is planned to run from September to December 2025 on the EU Academy platform and to be offered in English, Polish and Danish.

More information

For more information about who can apply, and the duration and structure of the three courses, check our dedicated CoP webpage.