PRELIMINARY VERSION
The INCITE-DEM Policy Roadmap: Strengthening Participation, Social Cohesion, and Environmental Sustainability in the European Union.
Building an inclusive digital democracy
Rebuilding trust in a polarized world
Strengthening the foundations of citizen participation
Mainstreaming democratic innovation
Rebuilding trust in a polarized world
Strengthening the foundations of citizen participation
Mainstreaming democratic innovation
Building an inclusive digital democracy
Our project findings underline that established channels for citizen participation, like public consultations, often fall short of their promise. Citizens invest time and energy but see little impact, as their input is often requested too late, is hard to track, and is overshadowed by organised interests. This erodes public trust. To fix this, we must build a responsive and genuinely inclusive system. The core strategy is to move beyond simply inviting people to participate and instead build an infrastructure of active support. This means proactively removing barriers by providing citizens with the time, resources, and skills to engage; redesigning processes to be transparent from start to finish; and creating a coherent, EU-wide strategy that ensures participation is a meaningful part of policymaking, not an afterthought.
Pernicious polarisation and political distrust are locked in a self-reinforcing cycle. This is sustained by a decline in empathy and mutual understanding, a widespread perception that citizen input does not have a real impact on institutional decisions, and an insufficient level of citizen skills needed for a complex age. The central strategy to counter this is to rebuild the connective tissue of society through targeted, evidence-based interventions. This means fostering deliberation by intentionally building new community networks to connect opposed groups; investing in civic education to equip citizens with critical skills; and using technology to anticipate and bridge societal divides before they become toxic.
Project research confirms that the promise of e-participation remains unfulfilled due to deep-seated structural barriers. Specifically, persistent digital divides in skills and confidence reinforce existing inequalities. A crisis of trust, fueled by data privacy concerns and superficial "democracy washing," discourages engagement. To counter this, we need a human-centred approach, using technology that is intentionally designed to support democratic goals. This means treating digital inclusion as a foundational right, prioritising hybrid models that blend online and offline engagement, actively fostering a healthy and deliberative online public sphere, and building a sustainable and trustworthy civic tech ecosystem.
Promising democratic innovations like citizens' assemblies often remain one-off, marginalised experiments. Project evidence confirms that these initiatives currently exist within a fragile ecosystem, lacking the permanent institutional structures to achieve systemic change. To fulfil their promise, we must establish permanent and well-supported systems for citizen engagement. This requires a systemic shift away from ad-hoc projects towards the creation of empowered, local, and permanent bodies with real decision-making authority. Citizen input must be transformed from a political gesture into an integral stage of governance with transparent processes and, where appropriate, a legally binding impact.
Empower communities with co-decision authority
Prioritise proactive inclusion for underrepresented communities
Formally integrate citizen deliberation into the policy cycle
Foster a healthy and sustainable civic tech ecosystem
Ensure universal access to digital democracy
Build social cohesion through deliberative community networks
Invest in lifelong civic empowerment for a resilient democracy
An EU strategy for high-quality public participation
Investing in the infrastructure for citizen participation
Goal
Goal
Goal
To fundamentally shift the role of citizens from advisors to decision-makers by creating a legal and financial framework that encourages municipalities to adopt binding, local-level participation mechanisms. Framed as a tool to enhance, rather than replace, representative democracy, the strategy begins with a pilot phase before progressively scaling up to achieve systemic impact.
To embed citizen deliberation as a standard, essential stage of governance by formally integrating advisory consultative bodies into legal and policy procedures at all levels, transforming public input from a political gesture into a required component of decision-making.
To shift from generic participation models to an approach focused on fairness and inclusion, where public authorities create specific procedures and support systems to guarantee the meaningful participation of historically underrepresented communities.
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
To close the digital divide in civic life by treating digital access and literacy as an essential public service, ensuring every citizen has the skills, confidence, and tools to participate in an equitable, deliberative, and trustworthy digital democracy, whilst respecting the right to opt out in favor of analogue participation.
To build a trustworthy and stable online public sphere by investing in the long-term health of the open-source civic technology ecosystem and fostering a culture that transforms citizen engagement from an occasional duty into a valued and recognised contribution to collective intelligence.
To transform public participation from a theoretical right into a practical reality for all citizens by establishing a well-resourced, permanent infrastructure that systematically removes structural barriers and encourages sustainable policy-making. This is essential to actively compensate for the common bias where participation favours those with more time and resources, ensuring that a diverse range of lived experiences shape public decisions.
To build a resilient democratic culture by proactively empowering all citizens with the practical skills and confidence required to resist misinformation and disinformation, engage constructively across divides, and participate meaningfully throughout their lives and from early on. This involves shifting from ad-hoc initiatives to a systemic model of continuous, practical civic capacity building that is adjusted to sociocultural contexts and embedded in community life and formal education, where people already are: schools, libraries, workplaces, and community hubs.
To create a coherent European Participation Strategy that transforms the current landscape of disconnected tools into a mutually reinforcing ecosystem. The strategy prioritises high-relevance sectors, specifically targeting environmental and climate policy as a pilot for broader implementation. The strategy's aim is to proactively use the full range of the EU's policy tools—including targeted legislation, funding conditionality, and compliance-driven sanctions to formal recommendations—to establish and promote harmonised, transparent, and impactful standards for citizen engagement across the Union.
Goal
To intentionally counter pernicious polarisation and rebuild social trust between disconnected or opposed community groups by creating and funding permanent spaces for structured, facilitated dialogue on shared local challenges.
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Integrate deliberative mechanisms into local and regional governance
Establish permanent thematic citizen panels at the national and EU level
Develop and fund targeted, co-designed procedures through trusted networks
Institutionalise a universal "Support infrastructure" for participation
Encourage and promote pre-consultation "inclusion assessments" and outreach lotteries
Establish an enabling legal framework to support co-decision
Launch pilot initiatives for binding participation
Integrate tech with existing social infrastructure
Establish sustainable funding for the digital commons
Launch national digital literacy and access campaigns
Develop a unified and trustworthy digital gateway for participation
Prioritise hybrid participation as the default standard
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Launch a network of local participation hubs by enhancing existing assets
Pilot a compensated civic leave program
Establish stable, long-term funding for participation
Promote and professionalise community facilitation
Establish permanent cross-community deliberative forums
Concrete actions
Launch and scale up landmark initiatives for experiential learning like
Establish a European framework for civic learning
Mainstream funding for system-wide capacity building
Responsible Actors
Responsible Actors
Promote adoption through "soft power" and institutional leadership
Lead by example with EU-level reforms
Create a coherent and integrated legislative framework ("Hard Power")
Explore systems to recognise civic contribution
Prioritise environmental sustainability
Foster public-community partnerships in tech development
Responsible Actors
Responsible Actors
National Governments (Parliaments and Ministries of Justice), EU Institutions (Commission, Parliament), Local & Regional Governments, Public Administrations.
Public Administrations, National Governments, EU Institutions, Local & Regional Governments, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) representing underrepresented groups.
National Governments, Local Governments, European Commission, Civil Society Organisations, Civic Tech Providers.
National Governments, European Commission, European Parliament, Local Governments, CSOs, and Research Institutes.
Strengthen existing community anchors as hubs for dialogue
Promote platforms designed for constructive dialogue
Responsible Actors
Time Frame
Time Frame
Responsible Actors
European Commission, National Governments, Local Governments (municipalities, libraries), Civil Society Organisations.
Responsible Actors
Phase 2
Time Frame
Time Frame
Responsible Actors
Phase 2
European Commission (DG EAC, DG JUST), National Governments (especially Education Ministries), Local Governments, Educational Institutions and Civil Society Organisations.
European Commission, European Parliament and Council, Member States.
Phase 2
Time Frame
Phase 2
European Commission and National Governments, Civic Tech Organizations, Philanthropic Foundations, Local Authorities, Universities and CSOs.
Phase 3
Responsible Actors
Time Frame
Phase 3
Time Frame
3-5 years Scale up successful procedures across all levels of public administration. Create a publicly accessible "Library of Best Practices" with templates for targeted engagement.
Phase 1
Phase 2
3-5 years Enact legal amendments to mandate deliberative consultation for all long-term national sustainability strategies. Scale up the integration of participatory budgeting and local citizen panels across a majority of municipalities.
Phase 2
Local Governments, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), National Governments, European Commission.
Phase 2
Systematically include the essential participation standards in all new legislative proposals and strengthen participation conditionality in the next generation of EU funding programs.
2-5 years Pilot municipalities implement and evaluate their chosen models, generating practical evidence. Where necessary, national legal amendments are enacted.
Phase 1
Time Frame
Phase 1
2-4 years Deploy national digital and AI literacy campaigns. Launch pilot versions of the unified gateways and staff the first physical Digital Democracy Hubs.
Ongoing
5+ years Begin a scaled-up rollout of successful models, supported by the new legal frameworks, across the Union, prioritising the improvement of existing structures over creating entirely new ones
Phase 2
Phase 1
4+ years Operate fully functional unified gateways at national and European levels, built upon existing systems where available, and supported by a permanent network of physical support hubs.
Phase 1
1-2 years Launch pilot programs for "Inclusion Assessments", "Outreach Lotteries" and group-specific procedures in several municipalities and government agencies.
Time Frame
2-5 years Begin the systematic review and legislative process to amend key existing sectoral directives to integrate the new standards. Commence the legislative process to amend key environmental directives (e.g., 2003/35/EC), integrating mandatory feedback reports, compliance-driven sanctions, and tailored engagement timelines
2-5 years Evaluate pilots and begin scaling up the successful models, supported by the established national funds and a growing network of trained facilitators.
2-4 years Roll out the European Framework for Lifelong Civic Learning. Formally integrate civic capacity building as a priority in the next cycle of relevant EU funding instruments, with clear criteria for institutional linkage and support infrastructure. Formally earmark subsidies for community organizing schemes.
Phase 1
1-2 years Begin the legal review to identify necessary amendments. Launch the first permanent thematic citizen panels at the national and EU levels focused on social and environmental sustainability.
Phase 1
1-2 years Launch the first cohort of pilot initiatives in committed municipalities. Begin the review of national legal frameworks.
Phase 2
1-2 years Conduct a review of libraries and other public infrastructure to assess their readiness to serve as integrated 'Neighbourhood Houses' and 'Digital Democracy Hubs'. Begin co-design workshops for the unified digital gateways.
4+ years Scale up successful pilots and integrate long-term funding for the digital commons into standard budgetary cycles to ensure permanent, renovated, and resilient civic infrastructure.
Phase 1
1-2 years European Commission proposes a framework and co-financing mechanism. Launch pilot programs for the 'Neighbourhood House' model and the 'Democracy Allowance', testing minimum eligibility criteria.
Phase 3
1-2 years The European Commission launches a campaign to promote the uptake of Recommendation (EU) 2023/2836, revises its internal "Better Regulation" guidelines, and proposes a reform package for the ECI.
1-2 years Launch pilot programs for "Democracy Laboratories". Develop and test the "Democracy Welcome Kit" with new voter cohorts. Begin integrating critical skills modules into national curricula.
2-4 years A critical mass of cities has established at least one permanent cross-community deliberative forum with certified facilitators.
Phase 1
1-3 years Establish multi-year operational grants within EU and national programs. Conduct a mapping of existing effective solutions to avoid duplication. Mandate co-creation and sustainability standards in all public funding calls.
4+ years Evaluate the impact of pilot programs and create an EU-wide best practice platform to share successful models for depolarization and social cohesion.
1-2 years Launch pilot programs for facilitator training and the integration of social simulation tools in select municipalities. Initiate funding calls for community anchor projects with clear cross-group collaboration requirements.
Text by Francesc Cots, Jeremie Fosse, Vanessa Buth, Doris Fuchs and Inês Campos based on the research outcomes of the INCITE DEM project. Visualisation by Kärol-Milaine Puunurm
Establish stable, long-term funding for participation
Mandate the creation/adaptation of national and local funds, co-financed by the EU, to provide a stable and predictable financial basis for democratic infrastructure, safeguarding it from short-term political cycles.
Establish permanent cross-community deliberative forums
To directly combat the formation of echo chambers, public authorities should fund and legally support the creation of permanent local deliberative forums. While Recommendation 4 calls for a general expansion of deliberative mechanisms, a specific subset of these forums must have the primary and explicit goal of bridging social and political divides. By intentionally bringing together community networks that do not normally interact, these spaces can forge new social ties, break down "us versus them" mentalities, and build the mutual understanding necessary to tackle shared problems.
Foster public-community partnerships in tech development
Exclusion is often built into the design of digital tools that do not match a community's needs or culture. To prevent this, public funding must require co-creation partnerships between administrations, civic technologists, CSOs, and universities. This ensures that the technology developed is not only secure and transparent but also genuinely user-centred, accessible, and aligned with democratic values rather than purely institutional or corporate interests.
Encourage and promote pre-consultation "inclusion assessments" and outreach lotteries
Public administrations should be strongly encouraged and supported to conduct an "Inclusion Assessment" before designing any major public consultation. This process involves proactively identifying the communities most affected by the policy, mapping their specific barriers to participation (e.g., lack of time, cost, language, child- and elderly care, or trust), and then designing the participatory process to ensure it is accessible and relevant. To ensure representative (hyper-) local populations, assess the use of outreach lottery systems that specifically target underrepresented groups, rather than relying on self-selection. Specifically in the context of environmental sustainability, assessments should consider social groups and communities more vulnerable to climate change impacts and with less adaptive capacity.
Strengthen existing community anchors as hubs for dialogue
Provide targeted funding to existing local associations, such as sports clubs, cultural centres, and neighbourhood groups, to host facilitated events focused on the "local commons.", like initiatives that address shared environmental resilience—such as greening urban spaces or local climate adaptation—.. To ensure these events effectively bridge divides, funding should be conditional on meeting specific requirements, such as mandatory cross-group collaboration and demonstrable outreach to specific, diverse demographics beyond the organisation's usual members. To succeed, these hubs must foster psychological safety by framing deliberation as a tool for community well-being. This involves using clear dialogue rules—like mutual respect and active listening—and providing shared expert context before discussions begin to establish a common reality, ensuring a safe environment that prioritizes genuine connection over immediate decision-making.
Establish a European framework for civic learning
Develop EU-level guidelines that encourage Member States to integrate core democratic competencies into all levels of education and professional development. This framework must prioritise critical skills for a polarised age, such as media literacy, recognising disinformation, constructive argumentation, perspective-taking, and digital safety, to equip citizens to navigate complex debates and build resilience against deceptive or polarising content.. Create separate outreach formats for youth, first-time voters, and disengaged adults.
Prioritize hybrid participation as the default standard
Digital participation should complement, rather than replace, in-person engagement. Therefore, all major public consultations must be required to offer a hybrid model or both online and offline participation opportunities. To guarantee access for all, the Neighbourhood Houses’ (established in Recommendation 2) should be equipped to function as ‘Digital Democracy Hubs’. These hubs, located in accessible public spaces like libraries, will provide on-site kiosks, digital tools, and human assistance to bridge the gap for those without digital access or skills.
Launch a network of local participation hubs by enhancing existing assets
Use the dedicated funds to upgrade existing public spaces (e.g., libraries, schools, community centres) to function as 'Neighbourhood Houses'. Rather than creating redundant structures, these hubs should partner with and build upon existing local associations and community spaces that already perform similar work. To be successful, these hubs must: Have a clear legal mandate and formal links to municipal governance, prioritising a direct influence on high-stakes local issues—such as urban development and climate resilience—to ensure their work is impactful and not merely symbolic. Be staffed by trained, professional facilitators to manage dialogue and mutual exchange with the government, prevent capture by vocal interest groups, and actively reach out to underrepresented communities. Be empowered with their own small, pre-approved budgets to implement green community projects decided by residents (e.g., community gardens, local park restoration, or energy efficiency upgrades). This allows citizens to see the direct impact of their participation, building trust and momentum.
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Explore systems to recognise civic contribution
To foster a culture where participation is valued, public authorities should explore innovative systems that formally acknowledge citizens' time and effort, including both non-monetary rewards—such as public recognition - as well as financial compensation.
Integrate tech with existing social infrastructure
Rather than building isolated digital systems, civic tech should be embedded within existing associations, community groups, and local collectives as far as possible.
Develop a unified and trustworthy digital gateway for participation
To move beyond a fragmented landscape of tools, develop a single, interoperable "Participation Navigation App" that serves as the central gateway for all democratic activities, simplifying how citizens locate and engage in democratic activities. Rather than adding complexity, these efforts should consolidate information from existing systems into a more accessible App that can be adjusted for the application at the local, regional, national or international level. The App provides central gateways to find participation opportunities and track the status of contributions. To lower barriers, the system should ideally support audio and video submissions alongside text. Where technically feasible, open-source AI tools could assist users in navigating complex data, provided they are overseen by an ethics committee to ensure neutrality. This infrastructure must be publicly owned and co-designed with citizens to ensure a transparent, intuitive experience tailored to their specific interests and locations.
Promote and professionalize community facilitation
High-quality deliberation does not happen automatically, especially in polarised environments; it requires expert guidance. National and EU funds (such as the ESF+ and CERV programmes) should be used to promote the professionalisation of community facilitation by establishing a certified network. This network would provide training in advanced skills essential for a polarised age, including conflict mediation, depolarisation techniques, and facilitating dialogue between groups with entrenched, conflicting perspectives. Their expertise is critical for ensuring that deliberative spaces become forums for mutual understandingrather than just another arena for political conflict.
Launch national digital literacy and access campaigns
To overcome the persistent digital divide that excludes citizens based on socioeconomic factors like class, age, and education, public authorities must fund ambitious national programs. These campaigns should provide affordable internet access, devices, and digital literacy training, with specific modules targeted at seniors and communities with lower digital adoption rates.
Develop and fund targeted, co-designed procedures through trusted networks
Based on the Inclusion Assessment, implement and fund specific participatory formats tailored to the needs of key underrepresented groups. Adapt formats to the sociocultural characteristics of each group by engaging trusted community figures (leaders, elders, intermediaries) and using context-specific pathways such as schools, cultural associations, and neighbourhood houses. The format should directly relate to the policy area, and could include participatory deliberative panels, co-design workshops, multilingual Residents’ Forums, or dedicated deliberation sessions integrated with school curricula. Potential topic areas could be: - Housing policy, specifically inviting low-income residents, renters, and individuals experiencing housing insecurity and/or energy poverty
- Urban mobility and public transport, including persons with disabilities and the elderly to develop low-carbon, accessible transport.
- Social integration policy, inviting migrant and refugee communities to provide direct input on climate resilience and local services.
- Long-term environmental or youth policies, with a special focus on inviting the young generation to contribute to solutions to the climate and/or biodiversity crises.
Establish an enabling legal framework to support co-decision
To foster the long-term legitimacy and institutional integration of these models, national governments should be encouraged to review their constitutions and local governance acts under strictly defined conditions (topics, thresholds, and duration). This approach positions co-decision as a mechanism to complement and strengthen, rather than replace, representative elections. For instance, reforms could enable citizen recommendations to become binding provided they align with existing laws.
Establish sustainable funding for the digital commons
A thriving digital democracy requires moving beyond the current landscape of promising but fragmented and under-supported projects. This requires a strategic shift from short-term, experimental grants to stable, long-term operational funding for open-source civic technologies, prioritising as much as possible the continuation of previous projects. This can be achieved through a multi-source funding strategy: - Earmark national budgets: Treat foundational civic technology as essential public infrastructure and allocate dedicated, multi-year funding for its maintenance and improvement.
- Leverage EU structural funds: Strategically use programs like the Cohesion Policy and the European Democracy Action Plan to create dedicated calls for proposals that support the scaling and long-term sustainability of proven open-source tools.
- Foster public-philanthropic partnerships: Encourage models where philanthropic foundations provide initial seed funding for innovative tools, with a clear pathway for public authorities to take over long-term funding once the tools prove their value.
Lead by example with EU-level reforms
1.
Simplify and strengthen the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI): Review and reform the ECI process to lower the administrative burden and create a stronger, more transparent follow-up for successful initiatives. Ensure the highest standards in EU consultations: The European Commission should consider reforms to its own internal guidelines to ensure its public consultations consistently meet the highest standards of transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness. Ensure political follow-up: The European Parliament should establish a formal mechanism to publicly debate and respond to the outcomes of major citizen engagement initiatives.
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Institutionalise a universal "Support infrastructure" for participation
Systematically embed a comprehensive support package as a standard, essential, and fully funded component of all major public consultations. This must include practical support to remove barriers, such as free and professional childcare, stipends to compensate for lost work or travel time, professional translation and interpretation services, hybrid (online and in-person) participation options, and full physical and digital accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Mainstream funding for system-wide capacity building
Prioritise and earmark funding within EU programmes (e.g., ESF+, CERV, Erasmus+) for building the capacity of the entire democratic ecosystem. This includes:- Empowering public administrations to create dedicated, cross-departmental units with in-house expertise in designing and facilitating high-quality, inclusive participatory processes.
- Strengthening civil society organisations (CSOs) to act as essential bridges between citizens and state institutions, equipping them to mobilise diverse communities and co-create solutions. Fund CSOs to deliver training that is free or incentivised, specifically reaching marginalised communities beyond already active groups.
Promote adoption through "soft power" and institutional leadership
1.
Explore funding conditionality: Investigate linking the disbursement of certain EU funds to the fulfilment of high-quality public participation requirements by Member States. Establish EU recommendations: Continue to establish and promote recommendations, in line of Recommendation (EU) 2023/2836, to serve as a "soft power" tool encouraging Member States to increase the ambition of their national consultation processes.
2.
Integrate deliberative mechanisms into local and regional governance
Public authorities should formally integrate deliberative mechanisms into routine local and regional procedures by amending local governance acts to formally recognise these processes. Key integrations may include: - Local planning: Formally integrating mini-publics, such as randomly selected citizen juries, into key local procedures like the development of urban master plans, mobility strategies, and climate strategies, ensuring their conclusions are formally submitted and addressed in final plans. As far as possible, replace traditional, less-effective consultation stages with deliberative mini-publics to avoid administrative duplication
- Participatory budgeting: Integrating participatory budgeting as a standard tool within hyper local planning processes, allowing communities to directly deliberate on and influence spending priorities for a portion of the public budget.
Promote platforms designed for constructive dialogue
The architecture of many digital platforms, particularly social media, is designed for virality and can foster polarization rather than consensus. Public authorities must actively counteract this by prioritizing funding and public procurement for technologies that are explicitly engineered for constructive debate and mutual understanding. This includes supporting the development and adoption of deliberative tools like Decidim or the Incite-dem Dialogue Tool, which help participants find common ground and explore the consequences of policy choices, rather than simply amplifying conflict.
Create a coherent and integrated legislative framework ("Hard Power")
1.
Strengthen common standards for Member States through sectoral legislation: the EU should systematically embed a core set of essential participation standards into all new and revised legislation where a legal basis exists, addressing initially directives and regulations related to the European Green Deal and environmental protection. This sectoral pilot allows for the nuanced application of standards before EU-wide expansion. These standards, which would establish clear penalties and administrative sanctions for Member State authorities that systematically ignore or fail to meet them, these participation standards must include: - Early engagement: Shifting the default for public consultation to the pre-formulation (agenda-setting) stage of the policy cycle.
- Clarity and standardised timelines: Mandating that all consultation documents are published in clear, accessible language with timelines tailored to the specific goals, target groups, and levels of governance involved, and with sufficient, standardised advance notice to allow for meaningful input.
- Centralised digital access: Requiring the use of accessible, centralised online platforms to publicise all consultation opportunities, timelines, and related documents.
Reinforce existing legislation with a "Right to a response": Amend sectoral directives—for instance, Directive 2003/35/EC concerning public participation in environmental plans—to require Member State authorities to produce a legally mandatory public feedback report following their consultations. This report must summarise the main themes of public input, clearly explain which key citizen proposals and concerns were adopted, and provide specific, robust justifications for why other significant proposals were not taken on board.
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Launch and scale up landmark initiatives for experiential learning like
1.
The democracy laboratories: Foster a European network of "Democracy Laboratories" hosted in accessible public spaces such as libraries and schools. These labs will serve as hubs for playful, experiential learning where citizens of all ages can practice democratic skills and engage with local political challenges through facilitated games and workshops. The 'Democracy welcome kit': Establish a "Democracy Welcome Kit" for all new voters (upon reaching voting age or earlier). This physical and digital toolkit will transform civic entry from a formality into a meaningful invitation, providing an accessible guide to civil rights, a directory of local participation opportunities, and secure access to digital engagement platforms. To avoid information overload, the kit could use clear and visual "participation maps" (similar to a store path) to guide citizens through the democratic process.
2.
Launch pilot initiatives for binding participation
The European Commission and national governments should support municipalities willing to experiment with co-decision on tangible local issues (e.g., local budgets, land use, or neighbourhood climate resilience projects). Pilots should prioritise small-scale environments—like schools or specific neighbourhoods—to build confidence and test models. Ensure participants understand the scope, legal responsibility, and mechanics of their involvement. Municipalities can draw inspiration from innovative, co-created models such as: The ‘Permanent citizen assembly’: This model establishes hyper-local assemblies with binding decision-making power on neighbourhood issues and direct control over public funds through participatory budgeting. To ensure inclusivity, members are selected randomly and geographical proximity of the assembly location should aim to be within a "15-minute" reach of participants’ homes to lower the threshold for participation Establish clear rules defining their decision-making powers to prevent conflicts with existing municipal bodies, checks and balances to prevent the hostile outcomes for minority groups and include incentives that encourage sustained citizen engagement over time and prot The ‘Inclusive citizen consultation’: This framework allows citizens to trigger a formal consultation process through a petition. A diverse consultation group—composed of randomly selected citizens, experts, and officials—is then granted real decision-making power to shape final, binding policies that are implemented and monitored publicly. Once a citizen petition reaches the required number of signatures, the initiating group should automatically receive modest public funding and access to expert assistance.
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Prioritise environmental sustainability
The development and maintenance of digital tools must follow green coding standards and efficiency principles to minimise the ecological footprint of digital democracy. Beyond technical efficiency, public authorities should prioritise the deployment of civic tech specifically designed to address the sustainability crisis, such as platforms for local circular economy management.
Establish permanent thematic citizen panels at the national and EU level
Building on the precedent of the Conference on the Future of Europe and National Climate Assemblies, the EU and Member States should institutionalise permanent, rotating citizen panels aligned with key policy areas (e.g., climate, digital transition, social policy), focusing on long-term environmental and social strategies. To ensure their formal integration, national governments must undertake the necessary legal amendments requiring that major legislative proposals in these areas be accompanied by recommendations from the relevant citizen panel, which must be publicly answered by the legislative body. Participants should be selected through random sortition to ensure a representative sample of the population, reflecting diverse lived experiences and socio-economic backgrounds.
Pilot a compensated civic leave program
Introduce mechanisms to compensate citizens for their time being active in political participation or doing community work.Example initiative - The 'Democracy Allowance': This initiative introduces a day of paid civic leave dedicated to political participation and community engagement in order to lower financial barriers for participation, whilst broadening the spectrum of engagement opportunities in long-term projects. T o ensure broad accessibility, the program will explore publicly-led funding models to minimise impact on employers. Furthermore, it will incorporate standardised compensation mechanisms to decouple participation from existing salary levels.
Presentation
Kärol-Milaine Puunurm
Created on January 23, 2026
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Transcript
PRELIMINARY VERSION
The INCITE-DEM Policy Roadmap: Strengthening Participation, Social Cohesion, and Environmental Sustainability in the European Union.
Building an inclusive digital democracy
Rebuilding trust in a polarized world
Strengthening the foundations of citizen participation
Mainstreaming democratic innovation
Rebuilding trust in a polarized world
Strengthening the foundations of citizen participation
Mainstreaming democratic innovation
Building an inclusive digital democracy
Our project findings underline that established channels for citizen participation, like public consultations, often fall short of their promise. Citizens invest time and energy but see little impact, as their input is often requested too late, is hard to track, and is overshadowed by organised interests. This erodes public trust. To fix this, we must build a responsive and genuinely inclusive system. The core strategy is to move beyond simply inviting people to participate and instead build an infrastructure of active support. This means proactively removing barriers by providing citizens with the time, resources, and skills to engage; redesigning processes to be transparent from start to finish; and creating a coherent, EU-wide strategy that ensures participation is a meaningful part of policymaking, not an afterthought.
Pernicious polarisation and political distrust are locked in a self-reinforcing cycle. This is sustained by a decline in empathy and mutual understanding, a widespread perception that citizen input does not have a real impact on institutional decisions, and an insufficient level of citizen skills needed for a complex age. The central strategy to counter this is to rebuild the connective tissue of society through targeted, evidence-based interventions. This means fostering deliberation by intentionally building new community networks to connect opposed groups; investing in civic education to equip citizens with critical skills; and using technology to anticipate and bridge societal divides before they become toxic.
Project research confirms that the promise of e-participation remains unfulfilled due to deep-seated structural barriers. Specifically, persistent digital divides in skills and confidence reinforce existing inequalities. A crisis of trust, fueled by data privacy concerns and superficial "democracy washing," discourages engagement. To counter this, we need a human-centred approach, using technology that is intentionally designed to support democratic goals. This means treating digital inclusion as a foundational right, prioritising hybrid models that blend online and offline engagement, actively fostering a healthy and deliberative online public sphere, and building a sustainable and trustworthy civic tech ecosystem.
Promising democratic innovations like citizens' assemblies often remain one-off, marginalised experiments. Project evidence confirms that these initiatives currently exist within a fragile ecosystem, lacking the permanent institutional structures to achieve systemic change. To fulfil their promise, we must establish permanent and well-supported systems for citizen engagement. This requires a systemic shift away from ad-hoc projects towards the creation of empowered, local, and permanent bodies with real decision-making authority. Citizen input must be transformed from a political gesture into an integral stage of governance with transparent processes and, where appropriate, a legally binding impact.
Empower communities with co-decision authority
Prioritise proactive inclusion for underrepresented communities
Formally integrate citizen deliberation into the policy cycle
Foster a healthy and sustainable civic tech ecosystem
Ensure universal access to digital democracy
Build social cohesion through deliberative community networks
Invest in lifelong civic empowerment for a resilient democracy
An EU strategy for high-quality public participation
Investing in the infrastructure for citizen participation
Goal
Goal
Goal
To fundamentally shift the role of citizens from advisors to decision-makers by creating a legal and financial framework that encourages municipalities to adopt binding, local-level participation mechanisms. Framed as a tool to enhance, rather than replace, representative democracy, the strategy begins with a pilot phase before progressively scaling up to achieve systemic impact.
To embed citizen deliberation as a standard, essential stage of governance by formally integrating advisory consultative bodies into legal and policy procedures at all levels, transforming public input from a political gesture into a required component of decision-making.
To shift from generic participation models to an approach focused on fairness and inclusion, where public authorities create specific procedures and support systems to guarantee the meaningful participation of historically underrepresented communities.
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
To close the digital divide in civic life by treating digital access and literacy as an essential public service, ensuring every citizen has the skills, confidence, and tools to participate in an equitable, deliberative, and trustworthy digital democracy, whilst respecting the right to opt out in favor of analogue participation.
To build a trustworthy and stable online public sphere by investing in the long-term health of the open-source civic technology ecosystem and fostering a culture that transforms citizen engagement from an occasional duty into a valued and recognised contribution to collective intelligence.
To transform public participation from a theoretical right into a practical reality for all citizens by establishing a well-resourced, permanent infrastructure that systematically removes structural barriers and encourages sustainable policy-making. This is essential to actively compensate for the common bias where participation favours those with more time and resources, ensuring that a diverse range of lived experiences shape public decisions.
To build a resilient democratic culture by proactively empowering all citizens with the practical skills and confidence required to resist misinformation and disinformation, engage constructively across divides, and participate meaningfully throughout their lives and from early on. This involves shifting from ad-hoc initiatives to a systemic model of continuous, practical civic capacity building that is adjusted to sociocultural contexts and embedded in community life and formal education, where people already are: schools, libraries, workplaces, and community hubs.
To create a coherent European Participation Strategy that transforms the current landscape of disconnected tools into a mutually reinforcing ecosystem. The strategy prioritises high-relevance sectors, specifically targeting environmental and climate policy as a pilot for broader implementation. The strategy's aim is to proactively use the full range of the EU's policy tools—including targeted legislation, funding conditionality, and compliance-driven sanctions to formal recommendations—to establish and promote harmonised, transparent, and impactful standards for citizen engagement across the Union.
Goal
To intentionally counter pernicious polarisation and rebuild social trust between disconnected or opposed community groups by creating and funding permanent spaces for structured, facilitated dialogue on shared local challenges.
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Integrate deliberative mechanisms into local and regional governance
Establish permanent thematic citizen panels at the national and EU level
Develop and fund targeted, co-designed procedures through trusted networks
Institutionalise a universal "Support infrastructure" for participation
Encourage and promote pre-consultation "inclusion assessments" and outreach lotteries
Establish an enabling legal framework to support co-decision
Launch pilot initiatives for binding participation
Integrate tech with existing social infrastructure
Establish sustainable funding for the digital commons
Launch national digital literacy and access campaigns
Develop a unified and trustworthy digital gateway for participation
Prioritise hybrid participation as the default standard
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Concrete actions
Launch a network of local participation hubs by enhancing existing assets
Pilot a compensated civic leave program
Establish stable, long-term funding for participation
Promote and professionalise community facilitation
Establish permanent cross-community deliberative forums
Concrete actions
Launch and scale up landmark initiatives for experiential learning like
Establish a European framework for civic learning
Mainstream funding for system-wide capacity building
Responsible Actors
Responsible Actors
Promote adoption through "soft power" and institutional leadership
Lead by example with EU-level reforms
Create a coherent and integrated legislative framework ("Hard Power")
Explore systems to recognise civic contribution
Prioritise environmental sustainability
Foster public-community partnerships in tech development
Responsible Actors
Responsible Actors
National Governments (Parliaments and Ministries of Justice), EU Institutions (Commission, Parliament), Local & Regional Governments, Public Administrations.
Public Administrations, National Governments, EU Institutions, Local & Regional Governments, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) representing underrepresented groups.
National Governments, Local Governments, European Commission, Civil Society Organisations, Civic Tech Providers.
National Governments, European Commission, European Parliament, Local Governments, CSOs, and Research Institutes.
Strengthen existing community anchors as hubs for dialogue
Promote platforms designed for constructive dialogue
Responsible Actors
Time Frame
Time Frame
Responsible Actors
European Commission, National Governments, Local Governments (municipalities, libraries), Civil Society Organisations.
Responsible Actors
Phase 2
Time Frame
Time Frame
Responsible Actors
Phase 2
European Commission (DG EAC, DG JUST), National Governments (especially Education Ministries), Local Governments, Educational Institutions and Civil Society Organisations.
European Commission, European Parliament and Council, Member States.
Phase 2
Time Frame
Phase 2
European Commission and National Governments, Civic Tech Organizations, Philanthropic Foundations, Local Authorities, Universities and CSOs.
Phase 3
Responsible Actors
Time Frame
Phase 3
Time Frame
3-5 years Scale up successful procedures across all levels of public administration. Create a publicly accessible "Library of Best Practices" with templates for targeted engagement.
Phase 1
Phase 2
3-5 years Enact legal amendments to mandate deliberative consultation for all long-term national sustainability strategies. Scale up the integration of participatory budgeting and local citizen panels across a majority of municipalities.
Phase 2
Local Governments, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), National Governments, European Commission.
Phase 2
Systematically include the essential participation standards in all new legislative proposals and strengthen participation conditionality in the next generation of EU funding programs.
2-5 years Pilot municipalities implement and evaluate their chosen models, generating practical evidence. Where necessary, national legal amendments are enacted.
Phase 1
Time Frame
Phase 1
2-4 years Deploy national digital and AI literacy campaigns. Launch pilot versions of the unified gateways and staff the first physical Digital Democracy Hubs.
Ongoing
5+ years Begin a scaled-up rollout of successful models, supported by the new legal frameworks, across the Union, prioritising the improvement of existing structures over creating entirely new ones
Phase 2
Phase 1
4+ years Operate fully functional unified gateways at national and European levels, built upon existing systems where available, and supported by a permanent network of physical support hubs.
Phase 1
1-2 years Launch pilot programs for "Inclusion Assessments", "Outreach Lotteries" and group-specific procedures in several municipalities and government agencies.
Time Frame
2-5 years Begin the systematic review and legislative process to amend key existing sectoral directives to integrate the new standards. Commence the legislative process to amend key environmental directives (e.g., 2003/35/EC), integrating mandatory feedback reports, compliance-driven sanctions, and tailored engagement timelines
2-5 years Evaluate pilots and begin scaling up the successful models, supported by the established national funds and a growing network of trained facilitators.
2-4 years Roll out the European Framework for Lifelong Civic Learning. Formally integrate civic capacity building as a priority in the next cycle of relevant EU funding instruments, with clear criteria for institutional linkage and support infrastructure. Formally earmark subsidies for community organizing schemes.
Phase 1
1-2 years Begin the legal review to identify necessary amendments. Launch the first permanent thematic citizen panels at the national and EU levels focused on social and environmental sustainability.
Phase 1
1-2 years Launch the first cohort of pilot initiatives in committed municipalities. Begin the review of national legal frameworks.
Phase 2
1-2 years Conduct a review of libraries and other public infrastructure to assess their readiness to serve as integrated 'Neighbourhood Houses' and 'Digital Democracy Hubs'. Begin co-design workshops for the unified digital gateways.
4+ years Scale up successful pilots and integrate long-term funding for the digital commons into standard budgetary cycles to ensure permanent, renovated, and resilient civic infrastructure.
Phase 1
1-2 years European Commission proposes a framework and co-financing mechanism. Launch pilot programs for the 'Neighbourhood House' model and the 'Democracy Allowance', testing minimum eligibility criteria.
Phase 3
1-2 years The European Commission launches a campaign to promote the uptake of Recommendation (EU) 2023/2836, revises its internal "Better Regulation" guidelines, and proposes a reform package for the ECI.
1-2 years Launch pilot programs for "Democracy Laboratories". Develop and test the "Democracy Welcome Kit" with new voter cohorts. Begin integrating critical skills modules into national curricula.
2-4 years A critical mass of cities has established at least one permanent cross-community deliberative forum with certified facilitators.
Phase 1
1-3 years Establish multi-year operational grants within EU and national programs. Conduct a mapping of existing effective solutions to avoid duplication. Mandate co-creation and sustainability standards in all public funding calls.
4+ years Evaluate the impact of pilot programs and create an EU-wide best practice platform to share successful models for depolarization and social cohesion.
1-2 years Launch pilot programs for facilitator training and the integration of social simulation tools in select municipalities. Initiate funding calls for community anchor projects with clear cross-group collaboration requirements.
Text by Francesc Cots, Jeremie Fosse, Vanessa Buth, Doris Fuchs and Inês Campos based on the research outcomes of the INCITE DEM project. Visualisation by Kärol-Milaine Puunurm
Establish stable, long-term funding for participation
Mandate the creation/adaptation of national and local funds, co-financed by the EU, to provide a stable and predictable financial basis for democratic infrastructure, safeguarding it from short-term political cycles.
Establish permanent cross-community deliberative forums
To directly combat the formation of echo chambers, public authorities should fund and legally support the creation of permanent local deliberative forums. While Recommendation 4 calls for a general expansion of deliberative mechanisms, a specific subset of these forums must have the primary and explicit goal of bridging social and political divides. By intentionally bringing together community networks that do not normally interact, these spaces can forge new social ties, break down "us versus them" mentalities, and build the mutual understanding necessary to tackle shared problems.
Foster public-community partnerships in tech development
Exclusion is often built into the design of digital tools that do not match a community's needs or culture. To prevent this, public funding must require co-creation partnerships between administrations, civic technologists, CSOs, and universities. This ensures that the technology developed is not only secure and transparent but also genuinely user-centred, accessible, and aligned with democratic values rather than purely institutional or corporate interests.
Encourage and promote pre-consultation "inclusion assessments" and outreach lotteries
Public administrations should be strongly encouraged and supported to conduct an "Inclusion Assessment" before designing any major public consultation. This process involves proactively identifying the communities most affected by the policy, mapping their specific barriers to participation (e.g., lack of time, cost, language, child- and elderly care, or trust), and then designing the participatory process to ensure it is accessible and relevant. To ensure representative (hyper-) local populations, assess the use of outreach lottery systems that specifically target underrepresented groups, rather than relying on self-selection. Specifically in the context of environmental sustainability, assessments should consider social groups and communities more vulnerable to climate change impacts and with less adaptive capacity.
Strengthen existing community anchors as hubs for dialogue
Provide targeted funding to existing local associations, such as sports clubs, cultural centres, and neighbourhood groups, to host facilitated events focused on the "local commons.", like initiatives that address shared environmental resilience—such as greening urban spaces or local climate adaptation—.. To ensure these events effectively bridge divides, funding should be conditional on meeting specific requirements, such as mandatory cross-group collaboration and demonstrable outreach to specific, diverse demographics beyond the organisation's usual members. To succeed, these hubs must foster psychological safety by framing deliberation as a tool for community well-being. This involves using clear dialogue rules—like mutual respect and active listening—and providing shared expert context before discussions begin to establish a common reality, ensuring a safe environment that prioritizes genuine connection over immediate decision-making.
Establish a European framework for civic learning
Develop EU-level guidelines that encourage Member States to integrate core democratic competencies into all levels of education and professional development. This framework must prioritise critical skills for a polarised age, such as media literacy, recognising disinformation, constructive argumentation, perspective-taking, and digital safety, to equip citizens to navigate complex debates and build resilience against deceptive or polarising content.. Create separate outreach formats for youth, first-time voters, and disengaged adults.
Prioritize hybrid participation as the default standard
Digital participation should complement, rather than replace, in-person engagement. Therefore, all major public consultations must be required to offer a hybrid model or both online and offline participation opportunities. To guarantee access for all, the Neighbourhood Houses’ (established in Recommendation 2) should be equipped to function as ‘Digital Democracy Hubs’. These hubs, located in accessible public spaces like libraries, will provide on-site kiosks, digital tools, and human assistance to bridge the gap for those without digital access or skills.
Launch a network of local participation hubs by enhancing existing assets
Use the dedicated funds to upgrade existing public spaces (e.g., libraries, schools, community centres) to function as 'Neighbourhood Houses'. Rather than creating redundant structures, these hubs should partner with and build upon existing local associations and community spaces that already perform similar work. To be successful, these hubs must: Have a clear legal mandate and formal links to municipal governance, prioritising a direct influence on high-stakes local issues—such as urban development and climate resilience—to ensure their work is impactful and not merely symbolic. Be staffed by trained, professional facilitators to manage dialogue and mutual exchange with the government, prevent capture by vocal interest groups, and actively reach out to underrepresented communities. Be empowered with their own small, pre-approved budgets to implement green community projects decided by residents (e.g., community gardens, local park restoration, or energy efficiency upgrades). This allows citizens to see the direct impact of their participation, building trust and momentum.
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Explore systems to recognise civic contribution
To foster a culture where participation is valued, public authorities should explore innovative systems that formally acknowledge citizens' time and effort, including both non-monetary rewards—such as public recognition - as well as financial compensation.
Integrate tech with existing social infrastructure
Rather than building isolated digital systems, civic tech should be embedded within existing associations, community groups, and local collectives as far as possible.
Develop a unified and trustworthy digital gateway for participation
To move beyond a fragmented landscape of tools, develop a single, interoperable "Participation Navigation App" that serves as the central gateway for all democratic activities, simplifying how citizens locate and engage in democratic activities. Rather than adding complexity, these efforts should consolidate information from existing systems into a more accessible App that can be adjusted for the application at the local, regional, national or international level. The App provides central gateways to find participation opportunities and track the status of contributions. To lower barriers, the system should ideally support audio and video submissions alongside text. Where technically feasible, open-source AI tools could assist users in navigating complex data, provided they are overseen by an ethics committee to ensure neutrality. This infrastructure must be publicly owned and co-designed with citizens to ensure a transparent, intuitive experience tailored to their specific interests and locations.
Promote and professionalize community facilitation
High-quality deliberation does not happen automatically, especially in polarised environments; it requires expert guidance. National and EU funds (such as the ESF+ and CERV programmes) should be used to promote the professionalisation of community facilitation by establishing a certified network. This network would provide training in advanced skills essential for a polarised age, including conflict mediation, depolarisation techniques, and facilitating dialogue between groups with entrenched, conflicting perspectives. Their expertise is critical for ensuring that deliberative spaces become forums for mutual understandingrather than just another arena for political conflict.
Launch national digital literacy and access campaigns
To overcome the persistent digital divide that excludes citizens based on socioeconomic factors like class, age, and education, public authorities must fund ambitious national programs. These campaigns should provide affordable internet access, devices, and digital literacy training, with specific modules targeted at seniors and communities with lower digital adoption rates.
Develop and fund targeted, co-designed procedures through trusted networks
Based on the Inclusion Assessment, implement and fund specific participatory formats tailored to the needs of key underrepresented groups. Adapt formats to the sociocultural characteristics of each group by engaging trusted community figures (leaders, elders, intermediaries) and using context-specific pathways such as schools, cultural associations, and neighbourhood houses. The format should directly relate to the policy area, and could include participatory deliberative panels, co-design workshops, multilingual Residents’ Forums, or dedicated deliberation sessions integrated with school curricula. Potential topic areas could be:- Housing policy, specifically inviting low-income residents, renters, and individuals experiencing housing insecurity and/or energy poverty
- Urban mobility and public transport, including persons with disabilities and the elderly to develop low-carbon, accessible transport.
- Social integration policy, inviting migrant and refugee communities to provide direct input on climate resilience and local services.
- Long-term environmental or youth policies, with a special focus on inviting the young generation to contribute to solutions to the climate and/or biodiversity crises.
Establish an enabling legal framework to support co-decision
To foster the long-term legitimacy and institutional integration of these models, national governments should be encouraged to review their constitutions and local governance acts under strictly defined conditions (topics, thresholds, and duration). This approach positions co-decision as a mechanism to complement and strengthen, rather than replace, representative elections. For instance, reforms could enable citizen recommendations to become binding provided they align with existing laws.
Establish sustainable funding for the digital commons
A thriving digital democracy requires moving beyond the current landscape of promising but fragmented and under-supported projects. This requires a strategic shift from short-term, experimental grants to stable, long-term operational funding for open-source civic technologies, prioritising as much as possible the continuation of previous projects. This can be achieved through a multi-source funding strategy:- Earmark national budgets: Treat foundational civic technology as essential public infrastructure and allocate dedicated, multi-year funding for its maintenance and improvement.
- Leverage EU structural funds: Strategically use programs like the Cohesion Policy and the European Democracy Action Plan to create dedicated calls for proposals that support the scaling and long-term sustainability of proven open-source tools.
- Foster public-philanthropic partnerships: Encourage models where philanthropic foundations provide initial seed funding for innovative tools, with a clear pathway for public authorities to take over long-term funding once the tools prove their value.
Lead by example with EU-level reforms
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Simplify and strengthen the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI): Review and reform the ECI process to lower the administrative burden and create a stronger, more transparent follow-up for successful initiatives. Ensure the highest standards in EU consultations: The European Commission should consider reforms to its own internal guidelines to ensure its public consultations consistently meet the highest standards of transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness. Ensure political follow-up: The European Parliament should establish a formal mechanism to publicly debate and respond to the outcomes of major citizen engagement initiatives.
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Institutionalise a universal "Support infrastructure" for participation
Systematically embed a comprehensive support package as a standard, essential, and fully funded component of all major public consultations. This must include practical support to remove barriers, such as free and professional childcare, stipends to compensate for lost work or travel time, professional translation and interpretation services, hybrid (online and in-person) participation options, and full physical and digital accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Mainstream funding for system-wide capacity building
Prioritise and earmark funding within EU programmes (e.g., ESF+, CERV, Erasmus+) for building the capacity of the entire democratic ecosystem. This includes:- Empowering public administrations to create dedicated, cross-departmental units with in-house expertise in designing and facilitating high-quality, inclusive participatory processes.
- Strengthening civil society organisations (CSOs) to act as essential bridges between citizens and state institutions, equipping them to mobilise diverse communities and co-create solutions. Fund CSOs to deliver training that is free or incentivised, specifically reaching marginalised communities beyond already active groups.
Promote adoption through "soft power" and institutional leadership
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Explore funding conditionality: Investigate linking the disbursement of certain EU funds to the fulfilment of high-quality public participation requirements by Member States. Establish EU recommendations: Continue to establish and promote recommendations, in line of Recommendation (EU) 2023/2836, to serve as a "soft power" tool encouraging Member States to increase the ambition of their national consultation processes.
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Integrate deliberative mechanisms into local and regional governance
Public authorities should formally integrate deliberative mechanisms into routine local and regional procedures by amending local governance acts to formally recognise these processes. Key integrations may include:- Local planning: Formally integrating mini-publics, such as randomly selected citizen juries, into key local procedures like the development of urban master plans, mobility strategies, and climate strategies, ensuring their conclusions are formally submitted and addressed in final plans. As far as possible, replace traditional, less-effective consultation stages with deliberative mini-publics to avoid administrative duplication
- Participatory budgeting: Integrating participatory budgeting as a standard tool within hyper local planning processes, allowing communities to directly deliberate on and influence spending priorities for a portion of the public budget.
Promote platforms designed for constructive dialogue
The architecture of many digital platforms, particularly social media, is designed for virality and can foster polarization rather than consensus. Public authorities must actively counteract this by prioritizing funding and public procurement for technologies that are explicitly engineered for constructive debate and mutual understanding. This includes supporting the development and adoption of deliberative tools like Decidim or the Incite-dem Dialogue Tool, which help participants find common ground and explore the consequences of policy choices, rather than simply amplifying conflict.
Create a coherent and integrated legislative framework ("Hard Power")
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Strengthen common standards for Member States through sectoral legislation: the EU should systematically embed a core set of essential participation standards into all new and revised legislation where a legal basis exists, addressing initially directives and regulations related to the European Green Deal and environmental protection. This sectoral pilot allows for the nuanced application of standards before EU-wide expansion. These standards, which would establish clear penalties and administrative sanctions for Member State authorities that systematically ignore or fail to meet them, these participation standards must include:
- Early engagement: Shifting the default for public consultation to the pre-formulation (agenda-setting) stage of the policy cycle.
- Clarity and standardised timelines: Mandating that all consultation documents are published in clear, accessible language with timelines tailored to the specific goals, target groups, and levels of governance involved, and with sufficient, standardised advance notice to allow for meaningful input.
- Centralised digital access: Requiring the use of accessible, centralised online platforms to publicise all consultation opportunities, timelines, and related documents.
Reinforce existing legislation with a "Right to a response": Amend sectoral directives—for instance, Directive 2003/35/EC concerning public participation in environmental plans—to require Member State authorities to produce a legally mandatory public feedback report following their consultations. This report must summarise the main themes of public input, clearly explain which key citizen proposals and concerns were adopted, and provide specific, robust justifications for why other significant proposals were not taken on board.2.
Launch and scale up landmark initiatives for experiential learning like
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The democracy laboratories: Foster a European network of "Democracy Laboratories" hosted in accessible public spaces such as libraries and schools. These labs will serve as hubs for playful, experiential learning where citizens of all ages can practice democratic skills and engage with local political challenges through facilitated games and workshops. The 'Democracy welcome kit': Establish a "Democracy Welcome Kit" for all new voters (upon reaching voting age or earlier). This physical and digital toolkit will transform civic entry from a formality into a meaningful invitation, providing an accessible guide to civil rights, a directory of local participation opportunities, and secure access to digital engagement platforms. To avoid information overload, the kit could use clear and visual "participation maps" (similar to a store path) to guide citizens through the democratic process.
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Launch pilot initiatives for binding participation
The European Commission and national governments should support municipalities willing to experiment with co-decision on tangible local issues (e.g., local budgets, land use, or neighbourhood climate resilience projects). Pilots should prioritise small-scale environments—like schools or specific neighbourhoods—to build confidence and test models. Ensure participants understand the scope, legal responsibility, and mechanics of their involvement. Municipalities can draw inspiration from innovative, co-created models such as: The ‘Permanent citizen assembly’: This model establishes hyper-local assemblies with binding decision-making power on neighbourhood issues and direct control over public funds through participatory budgeting. To ensure inclusivity, members are selected randomly and geographical proximity of the assembly location should aim to be within a "15-minute" reach of participants’ homes to lower the threshold for participation Establish clear rules defining their decision-making powers to prevent conflicts with existing municipal bodies, checks and balances to prevent the hostile outcomes for minority groups and include incentives that encourage sustained citizen engagement over time and prot The ‘Inclusive citizen consultation’: This framework allows citizens to trigger a formal consultation process through a petition. A diverse consultation group—composed of randomly selected citizens, experts, and officials—is then granted real decision-making power to shape final, binding policies that are implemented and monitored publicly. Once a citizen petition reaches the required number of signatures, the initiating group should automatically receive modest public funding and access to expert assistance.
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Prioritise environmental sustainability
The development and maintenance of digital tools must follow green coding standards and efficiency principles to minimise the ecological footprint of digital democracy. Beyond technical efficiency, public authorities should prioritise the deployment of civic tech specifically designed to address the sustainability crisis, such as platforms for local circular economy management.
Establish permanent thematic citizen panels at the national and EU level
Building on the precedent of the Conference on the Future of Europe and National Climate Assemblies, the EU and Member States should institutionalise permanent, rotating citizen panels aligned with key policy areas (e.g., climate, digital transition, social policy), focusing on long-term environmental and social strategies. To ensure their formal integration, national governments must undertake the necessary legal amendments requiring that major legislative proposals in these areas be accompanied by recommendations from the relevant citizen panel, which must be publicly answered by the legislative body. Participants should be selected through random sortition to ensure a representative sample of the population, reflecting diverse lived experiences and socio-economic backgrounds.
Pilot a compensated civic leave program
Introduce mechanisms to compensate citizens for their time being active in political participation or doing community work.Example initiative - The 'Democracy Allowance': This initiative introduces a day of paid civic leave dedicated to political participation and community engagement in order to lower financial barriers for participation, whilst broadening the spectrum of engagement opportunities in long-term projects. T o ensure broad accessibility, the program will explore publicly-led funding models to minimise impact on employers. Furthermore, it will incorporate standardised compensation mechanisms to decouple participation from existing salary levels.