Deliberative democracy and citizen engagement can be effective responses to the erosion of trust in democratic institutions, as well as helping to develop better policies by including all those concerned in more direct ways. A number of recent studies namely the OECD’s report “Catching the Deliberative Wave” and a European Parliament study on ‘practices of democracy’ describes the flourishing of inspiring deliberative democracy initiatives, including many in the EU, where thousands of randomly selected citizens are enrolled into more participatory governance styles in our democratic regimes. This context shows the flourishing interest in these tools and therefore raises expectations of the Commission.

Open to all, the Citizen Engagement and Deliberative Democracy Festival is the chance for people of diverse backgrounds to gather and tackle some of the pressing issues of our time.

Joining us this year will be European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, Vice-Presidents Dubravka Šuica and Věra Jourová as well as JRC Director-General Stephen Quest.

The programme features a variety of events including:

• sessions led by the European Commission,
• interactive thematic sessions,
• exhibition of citizen engagement projects and artwork.

Core topics of citizen engagement include:

• youth engagement,
• citizen engagement futures,
• challenges in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants include representatives from:

• the European Commission and other EU institutions,
• national authorities,
• civil society organisations,
• academia,
• youth and the arts,
• the OECD.

Please see the dedicated webpage of the festival for more information.