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Policy paper – More civil society involvement in the EU
01/07/2020

Gerald / Pixabay
Gerald / Pixabay

If EU citizens were more politically involved the democracy was strengthened.

Compared to most member states, EU-level participative democracy is quite advanced. However, to remain in the pole position, the EU needs to further develop its instruments for involving individual citizens as well as organized civil society. In order to move from the current top-down to a more bottom-up approach, citizens must be given a true right of initiative, policy makers need to become more responsive to citizens’ input, instruments must be simplified and participation should be increased. The second paper provides ten recommendations how to address these reform needs. The planned “Conference on the Future of Europe” is the best opportunity to test these ways of bottom-up citizens’ involvement.

Team & authors

About the Strengthening the democratic legitimacy of the EU project: The Conference on the Future of Europe is an opportunity to enhance EU-level democracy. Concrete reform proposals have been worked out for this purpose. They are also advocated in the debate on the EU’s future.

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