Recommendations towards Sustained Inclusive Democratic Participation and Civic Engagement

Within the activities of EUact2 project supported by the CERV Action Grant, GLOBSEC, in partnership with ELIAMEP, European Movement Ireland, and the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), held a two-day-long Transnational Reflection Group event in Bratislava, Slovakia in March 2023. We brought together over 30 young leaders from 11 EU countries, seeking their suggestions on European topics from education to democracy and values, foreign policy and security, and environment and sustainability. Moreover, participants in working group discussions reflected on developing civic space and citizen participation, part of EU’s Defence of Democracy Package priorities.

With the Commission’s planned reveal of the Package, the young leaders took upon proposing their own recommendations connected to sustained inclusive democratic participation and civic engagement, by working on the following:

• Top-down channels allowing EU institutions to better reach and engage EU citizens;
• Bottom-up channels enabling EU citizens to impact EU decision-makers;
• Better-tailored and more effective EU strategic communication to reach a more significant number of EU citizens.

Recommendations include from increasing the involvement of  EU officials and ’ambassadors’ to talk about the EU with local citizens, young people and less represented and engaged groups to creating transnational political and NGO networks, regularly holding various forms of citizens assemblies, creating for ordinary citizens a user-friendly, accessible and attractive platform for debate, deploy vigorous pro-EU ad campaigns, involve regularly interesting and influential artists, be relatable in messaging and others.

Read the full list of recommendations in the document below.

 * Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.