Next level citizen participation in the EU: Institutionalising European Citizens’ Assemblies

Citizens’ assemblies have gained popularity as instruments of effective and meaningful citizen participation. In the complex transnational context of EU policy-making, citizens’ assemblies can bring citizens and policy-makers closer, promote truly transnational political debates and improve the quality of the EU democracy and policies. But how can citizens’ assemblies be introduced into the EU legal and institutional framework, and its policy processes? What functions should citizens’ assemblies perform? And how should their work be organised to ensure they are democratic, well-functioning and effective instruments of policy-making and citizen participation in the EU? This paper provides answers to these questions by introducing a model for the institutionalisation of European Citizens’ Assemblies. It describes the processes, main bodies and institutions that need to be involved and explores how citizens’ assemblies can be integrated into the EU’s institutional and legal set-up.

The proposed model has several distinct features. First and foremost, it is citizen-centred. EU institutions put forward their ideas, but it is randomly selected citizens that steer the process. As members of a Citizens’ Board, they define the agenda for a Citizens’ Assembly by selecting topics and questions, organise deliberations and monitor the implementation of results. Second, the model describes how to connect European Citizens’ Assemblies directly to the EU’s policy-making process. It proposes an Interinstitutional Agreement on deliberative law-making between the EU main institutions as the legal foundation of European Citizens’ Assemblies. It also illustrates how the deliberative cycle of European Citizens’ Assemblies can be effectively connected to the EU policy cycle.

The model for European Citizens’ Assemblies is a concrete response to the lessons from the Conference on the Future of Europe. It draws on the experience of the Conference’s European Citizens’ Panels and suggests a format that would make this experience permanent and more impactful. The model presents a logical next step forward—a step that is necessary to move onto the next level of EU citizen participation.