NEF - Giving a voice to European citizens

On the eve of the European Council Summit on 21 and 22 June 2007, the NEF cluster of initiatives on strengthening democracy entered into its concluding round, with both the European Citizens’ Consultations (led by the King Baudouin Foundation) and the European Citizens’ Panel (led by the Foundation for Future Generations) making public their results after a deliberative process implemented over the course of a year.

Both initiatives seek to engage citizens at the European level and to inspire European, national and regional policymakers as they prepare to make decisions on the next phase of European development. While the European Citizens’ Panel reflected on the role of rural areas in tomorrow’s Europe, the European Citizens’ Consultations brought together more than 1,800 participants from the 27 Member States to address the question ‘What Europe do we want?’

With an innovative combination of professional facilitation and modern technology, and drawing together randomly chosen European citizens mirroring Europe’s population diversity, these programmes establish a model for European citizens’ participation on future topics.

But they should not be seen as one-shot programmes: follow-up events and dialogues with the European Institutions are scheduled so that the momentum created around the citizens’ consultations is carried forward. Among the lessons learned is that a common vision about the future of Europe can emerge through processes that lead to consensus, despite the disparity of European contexts.

The two programmes received support from a wide spectrum of independent European foundations and civil society organizations, as well as from the European Institutions. Five foundations were involved in both projects: the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Fondation Ch L Mayer pour le Progrès de l’Homme, the Carnegie UK Trust, the King Baudouin Foundation and the Fondation de France.

For more information
www.citizenspanel.eu
www.european-citizens-consultations.eu

Network of European Foundations
Director: Peggy Saïller
T +32 2 235 24 17
peggy.sailler@nefic.org
www.nefic.org