EU citizens have multiple participatory instruments at their disposal, from the right to petition the European Parliament (EP) to the European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI), from the European Commission’s public online consultation and Citizens’ Dialogues to the role of the European Ombudsman as an advocate for the public vis-à-vis the EU institutions.
While these mechanisms are broadly welcome they have – unfortunately – remained too timid and largely ineffective in bolstering bottom-up participation. They tend to involve experts and organised interest groups rather than ordinary citizens. They don’t encourage debates on non-experts’ policy preferences and are executed too often at the discretion of the political elites to justify pre-existing policy decisions.
In short, they feel more like consultative mechanisms than significant democratic innovations. That’s why the EU should be bold and demonstrate its democratic leadership by institutionalising its newly-created Citizens’ Panels into a Standing Citizens’ Assembly with rotating membership chosen by lot and renewed on a regular basis.
Why Citizens’ Panels haven’t quite cut it…
As we argued in the CEPS report, ‘The Radicality of Sunlight’ (which was published shortly after the Franco-German report on EU institutional reform), something new and exciting is lurking on the horizon – the introduction of so-called Citizens’ Panels, a new tool for citizens’ participation during the Conference on the Future of Europe, which was sponsored by the three main EU institutions. Four panels made up of 200 randomly selected citizens from all 27 Member States and reflecting the EU’s diversity issued recommendations that are now making their way through Brussels’ decision-making machine.
Here was the EU surfing on the so-called deliberative wave and doing so transnationally, a first in the history of the revival of citizens’ assemblies around the world. In the first half of 2023, three new Citizens’ Panels were launched by the Commission (on food waste, virtual worlds, and learning mobility), each comprised of 150 people, which in turn also issued recommendations on their assigned topics. Two more are taking place in Spring 2024, one on energy efficiency and the other on hate speech.
For optimists, such a deliberative moment can be considered a turning point. There are good reasons to hope that introducing European Citizens’ Panels in the EU’s modus operandi is part of a new dynamic and are here to stay. But even if this were the case, how can we speak of a democratic revival through citizen engagement if the very thing that was supposed to kickstart it has been largely unnoticed and/or ignored by the wider public?
Above all, the panels failed to reach the wider public because they’ve been largely insulated from ongoing political dynamics (e.g. in national parliaments, the media, social movements). They resemble mega focus groups rather than ‘the people’ in action. The stakes and their impact on actual policies remains opaque, as noted by citizens themselves in a letter to the EP’s petition committee.
Mediating actors (political parties, trade unions, civil society organisations) have only been involved very lightly, which will please purists of deliberative democracy but not those who hold a more holistic view of politics and policymaking in the EU. This remains a process of ‘technocratic democratisation’, or ‘democracy without politics’, where technocratic logic still prevails over the democratic alternative.
… and why a Standing Citizens’ Assembly would
Various commentators and organisations, from Bertelsmann to CTOE and the Democratic Odyssey, have offered reasons as to why a permanent Standing Citizens’ Assembly could be a desirable change in the eyes of ordinary citizens. For one, this body would be radically more visible than the current and upcoming EU panels and would thus empower citizens and civil society organisations through its deliberative, monitoring, and mobilising functions.
A permanent assembly, as opposed to ad hoc panels, connected to and embedded in both the EU institutional policymaking machinery and the public sphere would become a true fixture of the EU landscape – both as an independent space within that landscape and as a source of sunlight shining onto the whole EU edifice.
Whilst numerous models have been designed, including the Democratic Odyssey blueprint, these won’t be rehearsed here.
Instead, we invite a conversation to take place, whereby the assembly’s design would at a minimum combine top-down and bottom-up dynamics. The Standing Citizens’ Assembly’s mandate could start with agenda setting for the EU. It could also include different elements, such as deliberating on concrete policy issues, discussing successful ECIs, or taking part in a mixed conference or convention.
It could also be entrusted with scrutiny-related tasks to monitor the implementation of decisions and ensure good governance and the integrity of the European institutions alongside other bodies such as OLAF and the Ombudsman office. The assembly would cooperate closely and meet with the other three main institutions as well as civil society organisations, political parties, trade unions and other relevant organisations.
Such a Standing Citizens’ Assembly could be formed through an Inter-Institutional Agreement between the European Commission, the EP, and the Council (as suggested by the Bertelsmann Foundation). This wouldn’t necessarily require treaty change, if the assembly is an institutional add-on to the existing EU institutional architecture and would neither create shifts in the inter-institutional balance nor exceed an advisory role to the EU’s existing decision-making process.
It could also be created more organically through an alliance between the EP, the Commission and civil society actors to develop the standing body over time. More ambitious options would, naturally, require formal treaty change.
But imagine the look and feel of our democracies if citizens were more than just intermittent voters, who are only asked to give their opinion once every four or five years. Imagine that our voices, opinions, and collective intelligence were heard on a permanent basis, rather than on politicians’ whims.
By creating a Standing Citizens’ Assembly, the EU could serve as a true laboratory for a radical transformation of democracy beyond the state. It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be passed over lightly.
This Expert Commentary is part of a series that will be published prior to the CEPS Ideas Lab on 4-5 March 2024 to showcase some of the innovative ideas we’ll be rigorously debating with our participants. More info can be found on the official Ideas Lab 2024 website.
