Following the experience of the Conference on the Future
of Europe (CoFoE), European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen announced a ‘new generation’ of
European Citizens’ Panels (ECPs) to be conducted ahead
of key legislative proposals.1
Within just a few months, a
pilot set of three ECPs had been established, taking place
between December 2022 and May 2023 on the topics of
food waste, virtual worlds, and learning mobility.
There is huge potential for the Panel format to
incorporate citizens’ perspectives into the legislative
process, which stands to result in more robust and
democratically legitimate EU-level policymaking.
However, as the end of the current politico-institutional
cycle approaches, the conclusion of these first Panels
begs the question: Will this development in citizen
participation at the EU level last beyond the political
commitment of this von der Leyen Commission? At
this time, it remains unclear whether these Panels
will be included in the next Commission’s mandate
and if they will transform from a political project into
an institutional process fully embedded in the EU’s
policymaking cycle. The Commission should fully formalise and
institutionalise the process and thus embed it into
its internal procedures as part of the EU legislative
process. If this happens, the ECPs have the potential to
improve the quality of legislation, as well as to keep the
Commission in check, testing whether its thinking is in
line with citizens’ general expectations.
Authors
- Published in
- Germany
