Future and challenges of European democracy

On Thursday, March 14, the sixth international “Citizens’ Panel” took place as part of the Parliament for the Future project. This time the event was organised by the Peace Institute on the topic of European democracy in the premises of the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia and was attended by citizens from 7 EU countries.

In the morning session, we listened to a lecture by our colleague Dr. Marko Ribać, who placed the upcoming European elections in the broader context of democratic backsliding and populism and outlined the possibilities of mobilising citizens. He highlighted the gender-specific differences in political beliefs, with young women in particular tending towards liberal and democratic values.

This was followed by group work, in which participants gave their initial assessments of the recommendations that emerged from the EU-level public assembly, the Conference on the Future of Europe. The recommendations addressed the importance of knowledge about the EU and its institutions, focusing on how to bring the EU closer to citizens, and raised the issue of promoting active and continuous participation in decision-making processes, especially among the younger population.

In the afternoon, Gaja Brecelj from Umanotera joined us and introduced the Voice of the People (Glas ljudstva) initiative to the participants. She spoke about how the initiative was created during the authoritarian government of Janez Janša and the Covid-19 epidemic, how it is organised and what activities it still carries out (monitoring government commitments). In the coming months, Voice of the People is also preparing a campaign to participate in the European elections in June.

This was again followed by group work in which participants supplemented and expanded the existing recommendations with concrete suggestions for improvement.

The event concluded with the presentation of new recommendations on European democracy, which are available here. 

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Photos: Jure Merčnik, Ljubljana Secondary School of Design and Photography