The European Citizens? Consultations are the first-ever pan-European debate involving citizens from all 27 Member States to debate the future of the European Union across the boundaries of geography and language. Citizens exchange opinions, develop together their ideas on the future direction of Europe, and communicate their perspectives to policy-makers. Simultaneous and interlinked events across Europe allow every citizen to make his or her voice heard. The consultations and their follow-up aim at inspiring European as well as national institutions and decision-makers as they prepare to take decisions on the next phase of Europe?s development. The process is funded and organised by an independent consortium of foundations and non-profit organisations from all over Europe and led by the King Baudouin Foundation. It is co-sponsored by the European Commission?s communication strategy ?Plan D?.

The European Citizens? Consultations and their follow-up go beyond most European communication initiatives. The citizens of Europe are at the centre of the project: Reflecting and representing the diversity of the entire EU population, they engage into an authentic and exciting European dialogue. They are chosen at random whilst making sure that different age groups, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds are represented. Further criteria are added as appropriate in each country. During the deliberations, the participants can draw back on experts if needed, but it is them who set the agenda of the debates, identify common ground, and formulate recommendations to policy-makers. Without requiring any special knowledge or language capabilities, they exchange expectations, hopes, and concerns across boundaries and cultures. Innovative dialogue design, modern technology, and simultaneous interpretation into all official languages of the EU overcome the typical barriers to effective participation ? ensuring that each citizen can make his or her voice heard.  

Obtain information about how the European Citizens' Consultations work, by watching the ECC video with impressions from all the events.

The first event takes place in Brussels on the 7th and 8th of October 2006. 200 citizens from all 25 Member States discuss the overall question of ?what Europe do we want?? and thereby set the agenda for the following debates at national level. To learn more, please see the section ?Agenda-Setting Event?.

In November 2006, two groups of 40 citizens meet in Berlin (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary) to assess which kind of information the participants of the national consultations require to lead a fruitful discussion. These are mostly internal events. To learn about the outcome of these events, download the "Report on the Citizens' Juries".

From February to March 2007, 27 national consultations take place at Member State level to discuss the three topics determined at the Agenda-Setting Event. Each consultation has four to nine other consultations in other Member States happening at the same time. They exchange their results and enable a European dialogue across locations. To learn more about where these events are taking place and what their results are, please see the section ?National Citizens? Consultations?.

On the 9th and 10th of May 2007, 27 citizen representatives engage into a European-level synthesis exercise highlighting the common ground and the areas of divergence between the national outcomes. On the basis of the 27 national reports, they work on their "European Citizens' Perspectives on the Future of Europe". These are handed over at a press conference in the European Parliament to policy-makers, including Commission Vice-President Margot Wallstr?m who discusses with them the implications of their results in a European Citizens' Roundtable.

June 6 marks the official start of the follow-up process. A small number of selected citizens joins a panel of policy-makers during a policy dialogue organised in cooperation with the European Policy Centre (EPC). Together with journalists, experts and stakeholders they engange in an in-depth discussion about the political implications of the results. To find out more about the follow-up process at both European and national levels, click here.