European Citizens’ Panels

A new phase of citizen engagement

The European Citizens’ Panel on Tackling Hatred in Society is ongoing

150 citizens from across Europe have come together for the European Citizens’ Panel on Tackling Hatred in Society.

Together, they are deliberating on the various perceptions and expressions of hate today and what measures can be taken to address acts of hatred in society.

By the conclusion of the Panel in May, citizens will agree upon a series of recommendations that will be submitted to the European Commission and subsequently influence related EU policies.

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The European Citizens’ Panel on Energy Efficiency has submitted its recommendations to the European Commission

two citizens hand over the final recommendations to Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the European Green Deal.

At the end of the final session of the Panel, the citizens presented their recommendations to Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the European Green Deal.

Over three weekends, 150 randomly selected citizens representing all 27 EU Member States came together to discuss the challenges and benefits of energy efficiency most relevant to them.

Together, they put forward a list of concrete recommendations that will contribute to shaping future EU laws and feed into upcoming Commission initiatives. This includes the foreseen Commission proposal for a Recommendation on the “Energy Efficiency First Principle”.

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What are European Citizens’ Panels?

Citizens' Panels are becoming a regular feature of democratic life in the European Union (EU). They bring together randomly-selected citizens from all 27 member states to discuss – at European level – key, upcoming proposals that affect us all.

European Citizens’ Panels see participants working together in small groups (each of around 12 people) and all together (in plenaries). A facilitation team provides support. Based on the discussions, citizens make recommendations for the European Commission to consider when defining policies and initiatives.

From mid-December 2022 to the end of April 2023, three panels – each with around 150 participants – have had the opportunity to develop concrete recommendations on some of the key initiatives of the 2023 Commission Work Programme. The first set of citizens' panels addressed the issues of food waste, virtual worlds and learning mobility.

How does a Citizens’ Panel work?

Session 1
Ideas generation
The goal of the first session is to generate ideas, and to build and group approaches that citizens find most promising for further discussion in subsequent sessions.
Session 2
Review and refinement
The goal of this session is to build on the approaches agreed in the first session and draft initial citizen recommendations. Following an iterative, 'peer review' process, citizens in working groups review and build on each other’s work, adding to the ideas. These constitute the basis for the panel to develop its final recommendations, during the concluding session.
Closing session
Conclusion
The closing session submits the conclusions of debates, together with the panel's recommendations, to the European Commission, as part of the package accompanying the relevant proposals.

How are citizens selected?

Around 150 citizens, randomly selected from the 27 member states

Representing the EU’s diversity - geography (urban/rural), gender, age, education, socioeconomic background

1/3 of participants are young people (16-25 years old)

Participants in the new generation of Citizens’ Panels are recruited through random selection. Potential participants are contacted by telephone. Recruiters use tools that generate valid telephone numbers at random (including both mobile and fixed line telephone numbers). This way a diverse, representative group can be reached.To ensure that panels reflect as far as possible the EU’s socio-demographic composition, the process ensures that recruitment is representative.

Target recruitment figures combine data from:

Eurobarometer, the annual European Union public opinion survey, and
Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office.

A quota system ensures a gender-balanced panel, and specifies that young people aged 16-25 represent a third of the panel. Other socio-demographic characteristics we take into account relate to:

education level
geographic location
occupation.

Participants from each member state are recruited in proportion to that member state’s population, while ensuring proportional representation across different groups. For smaller countries with fewer participants, the categories are covered across panels, so that smaller countries are represented.

The selection process is completely renewed for each new panel.

Recruiting representative and diverse panels is essential to facilitate vibrant discussions and ensure that those discussions reflect a wide variety of perspectives and opinions.

Concluded panels

Food waste panel

What actions should be taken by EU Member States, actors in the food supply chain, citizens, and other private and public stakeholders in order to step up the effort to reduce food waste?