Under Construction: Citizen Participation in the European Union
Stefan Bloch, Paul Butcher, Maarten de Groot, Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Dominik Hierlemann, Corina Stratulat
Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung / Gütersloh 05/2022
On 9 May 2022, the Conference on the Future of Europe formally came to an end. Europeans were able to participate in debates in an unprecedented way. The Conference has shown that European democracy needs to be more than elections every five years. But how can citizens actually participate in the every-day politics of the EU? How well does citizen participation at the EU-level work and how can it be improved?
The study "Under Construction: Citizen Participation in the European Union" and the corresponding Policy Brief "The Missing Piece: A Participation Infrastructure for EU Democracy", drafted by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the European Policy Centre (EPC), take a close look at the EU's current and future participatory system.
Up until now, the EU's participatory system is a patchwork of disconnected instruments. To give citizens a say and deepen democracy, the EU needs to develop a fully-fledged participation infrastructure.
The study itself is based on a representative population survey and, in particular, interviews and a survey among 100 EU decision-makers and EU democracy experts.
Download of Study here
Download of Policy Brief here (Englisch version)
Download of German version of Policy Brief here
Latest publications
Europe’s next watershed – how liberal Europe should react to Trump 2.0
Janis A. Emmanouilidis & Fabian Zuleeg, EPC Discussion Paper, Brussels 01/2025
Overcoming a hollow & illusory unity – Preparing EUrope for Trump
Janis A. Emmanouilidis | Almut Möller | Fabian Zuleeg, EPC Commentary, Brussels 11/2024
Reactions to the next Commission
Fabian Zuleeg & Janis A. Emmanouilidis, EPC Flash Analysis, Brussels 09/2024
Confronting the permacrisis: Time for a supra-governmental avantgarde
Fabian Zuleeg, Almut Möller, Janis A. Emmanouilidis, EPC Discussion Paper, Brussels 07/2024
Eight structural innovations for the EU’s next politico-institutional cycle
Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Fabian Zuleeg, EPC Discussion Paper, Brussels 06/2024
Participatory democracy at the EU level: How to break the invisible ceiling?
Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Corina Stratulat, Observatory Report, EPC & EU Democracy Reform Observatory 03/2024
Europawahl 2024 – was für die EU und Deutschland auf dem Spiel steht
Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Johannes Greubel, Brussels 01/2024
Turning Fear Into Hope
Herman Van Rompuy | Fabian Zuleeg | Janis A. Emmanouilidis | Jacki Davis, EPC 11/2022
Overcoming the ambition-unity dilemma
Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Fabian Zuleeg, Brussels 10/2022
The Future is Now – What next after the Conference on the Future of Europe?
Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Taking Stock, Moving Forward: Reflections Following the Conference on the Future of Europe, Hanns Seidel Foundation & ELIAMEP, Athens 08/2022