The 4th meeting of the Network for Citizen Participation & Deliberation in Europe took place at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 4-5 November 2024. This gathering, organised by the German Bertelsmann Stiftung (BMST), FIDE, and the Council of Europe, brought together key representatives from European institutions, NGOs, and various national and regional bodies dedicated to enhancing citizen participation and deliberative democracy in Europe.
The meeting opened on 4 November with a welcome session led by representatives from the Council of Europe, BMST, and FIDE. After setting the stage, participants shared updates on their current activities and projects in the field of participatory democracy and exchanged ideas on the challenges encountered in advancing participatory practices across Europe.
On the second day, the discussion focused on a presentation by Make.org about the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of AI technologies to foster civic participation. The presentation spurred a lively discussion on the role of technology, not only in the field of citizen participation but also on the general future of European democracies.
The next segment centred on capacity building for citizen engagement, featuring overviews from Bertelsmann Stiftung, FIDE, the Committee of the Regions, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and the Council of Europe on their most recent trainings, workshops, and competence-building programmes for civil servants and CSOs.
During the afternoon session, participants broke into small groups to discuss synergies among their initiatives, mainly in the field of capacity building, and brainstorm potential collaborative projects for 2025, such as the joint presentation of the quality guidelines for participation, currently being developed by BMST and FIDE. The plenary discussion that followed emphasised once again the importance of coordination across regions and institutions to maximise impact and foster peer-to-peer learning. This exchange was enriched by a presentation from a representative of the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, who shared real-world case studies of citizen participation initiatives in his region and presented the results of a nationwide survey that provided evidence of the link between active citizen participation and citizen satisfaction.
Following a forward-looking discussion on the network’s next steps, the day concluded with a reception at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the Council of Europe, where the network members had the opportunity to continue the lively discussion and exchange with representatives from several permanent representations, PACE, and the Council of Europe Directorate on Democracy.
