Listening to Europe’s citizens: An assessment of the first experiments in participation organised at EU level

Since the French and Dutch “no” to the Constitutional Treaty, EU institutions have made a priority of projects relating to “participatory democracy”, “deliberation” and “Plan D”. They provide citizens with a new way of democratic expression in addition to parliamentary representation. But before these tools to “encourage the emergence of a citizens’ opinion” can be mainstreamed, they must be the subject of an in-depth analysis. This policy paper offers an assessment of the first participatory experiments to take place at EU level. It is based on a seminar-assessment organised by Notre Europe and Sciences-Po in 2010.