Citizens, local politicians and the future of Europe - interim report

​​The interim report summarises results from 130 events the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has organised in 2021 in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Reaching out to 10 000 citizens, local politicians and stakeholders, the CoR has worked together with the Bertelsmann Stiftung, local and regional administrations, associations representing local and regional interests, and EU institutions.

The Conference on the Future of Europe is the opportunity for citizens to interact with politicians across different levels of government and express their aspirations. As the assembly of locally elected politicians, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) believes this is an opportunity to establish new models of dialogue and deliberation with citizens, which can strengthen democracy.

As this interim report confirms, EU regions and cities have recently developed multiple approaches and experiments to innovating democracy. Respecting some key principles, such as inclusiveness, deliberation and valuing the impact of citizens' assemblies, panels and juries etc., appear to be important conditions for ensuring successful and sustainable citizens' engagement processes. A permanent citizens' assembly at EU level should link up the different levels of parliaments and governments, as they are important in terms of addressing specific territorial challenges that citizens face in, e.g. border regions, regions in demographic decline, rural areas, and tourism destinations etc.

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