Conference - A New Chapter for Participatory Democracy - Moving Towards a More Resilient, Inclusive, Citizen-Centered Democracy.

Building on the success of the 2021 project From local to European and ahead of the 2024 European elections, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) renewed its partnership with the Bertelsmann Foundation. The goal of this partnership is to support local and regional politicians, authorities and interested parties in establishing participatory democracy within their constituencies through capacity building and through the inclusion of active participation of citizens in decision-making in the EU.

In the joint project From local to European, the European Committee of the Regions and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, through 23 cooperation projects from 67 European cities and regions, conducted civil dialogues with around 200 politicians.

The kick-off conference held in the premises of the European Committee of the Regions aimed to determine the direction of the project, which is in line with local and regional priorities in Europe. What are the needs of regions, cities and municipalities in Europe? What kind of support and assistance in capacity building is needed for the implementation of citizen participation projects? Cities and regions are important for the EU and vice versa. They are laboratories of innovative participation mechanisms. More and more often, it becomes very necessary for politicians to integrate the voices of citizens into the policy-making process.

Dubravka Šuica, Commissioner of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography, addressed the participants and said: "Democracy is based on the ability of citizens to contribute and participate in their democracy at all levels. We are the first executive body to embed deliberative democracy in our policy-making through a new generation of European citizens' panels. From 2021, our work is supported by the Competence Center for Participatory and Deliberative Democracy. Today, exercises of deliberative democracy take place in more than 1,300 local self-government units. We must encourage and support them."

Renata Taušan, head of the office of the Representation of Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem in Brussels, also participated in the conference.

Photos: European Committee of the Regions (CoR)