Join the 3rd Citizen Engagement and Deliberative Democracy Festival

How is democracy changing? How can citizens participate in this change? These are the themes of the 3rd Annual Citizen Engagement and Deliberative Democracy Festival. Join the online festival between 6-12 December 2020. YEE will be there too! 

The global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted societal and policy challenges amid uncertainty. People need solutions that go beyond business-as-usual policy. Open to all, the Citizen Engagement and Deliberative Democracy Festival is the chance for people of diverse backgrounds to gather and tackle some of the pressing issues of our time.

Joining this year will be European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, Vice-Presidents Dubravka Šuica and Věra Jourová as well as JRC Director General Stephen Quest.  Therefore, this festival is a timely key moment for the Commission to continue advancing the talk (and walk) about mainstreaming citizen engagement and deliberation in policy matters in the Commission in particular, and within public administration in general. It is about catching an existing wave, which the current crises made more urgent and positioning the Commission as a key player in these participatory styles of governance.

The programme features a variety of events including

• sessions led by the European Commission,
• interactive thematic sessions,
• exhibition of citizen engagement projects and artwork.

Core topics of citizen engagement include

• youth engagement,
• citizen engagement futures,
• challenges in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants include representatives from the European Commission and other EU institutions, national authorities, the OECD, academia, civil society organisations and youth. And as you might have thought, YEE can´t  be missed on such event!

We are proud and delighted that our Liaison Oficer on Oceans and Arctic, Venetia Galanaki, will take part in the festival as a speaker representing YEE, and bringing in the youth perspective. Ven will be a panelist in a special session “: United in Biodiversity: What is the role of youth in creating healthy democratic ecosystems?” that will take place on Friday 11 December 2020 at 9.30-11.00 CET. Don´t miss it! 

This festival will coincide with the adoption of the European Democracy Action Plan. It supports the goal of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to “strengthen the links between people, nations and institutions in Europe”. 

Check out the full agenda here. The festival is open to anyone that is interested to attend it through the just launched EU Academy platform. Registration is required to attend the festival. Register here.