Following up on the final report on the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) and its recommendations on a permanent European Citizens' Assembly, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung organised a working conference on the 27 June 2022.
The objective of this working conference was to deliver recommendations on how to take citizens' participation in EU policy-making and its link to representative democracy to the next level and make it a permanent reality.
The topics addressed in working groups consisting of a diverse mix of politicians, citizens and experts from local and regional governments as well as from EU institutions and bodies were:
- Lessons learned from the CoFoE, the link between participatory and representative democracy and citizens' assemblies at local, regional, national and European levels
- The future of local citizens' assemblies and their link to the EU-level
- Suggestions on how to put the CoFoE recommendation into practice by the COR
The results of the working conference is be summarised in a report and comprehensive proceedings will be made public.
For more details, please check the agenda here.
The opening and closing sessions were web-streamed (with EN, DE, FR, ES, IT, PL interpretation), and the conclusions of the conference have been published, see report here.
The opening and closing sessions can be followed below: