Nov 9, 2025
Report on the follow up event
This report provides an overview of the Deliverable 20 (D20) on the Follow-up event of the Democratic Odyssey.
The Democratic Odyssey is a crowdsourced campaign aimed at democratic renewal through the establishment of a “permanent people’s assembly for Europe”. It brings together a wide-ranging and pluralistic group of actors, including academics, practitioners, journalists, institutional representatives and civil society. Inspired by earlier, tentative efforts within EU legislatures to institutionalise citizen participation, the campaign seeks to go further by embedding inclusive, transnational deliberation at the heart of European democracy.
Between 2024 and 2025, the project piloted a transnational deliberative journey, engaging over 300 randomly selected citizens from across Europe and beyond. Through multilingual assemblies in Athens, Florence, and Vienna, as well as online, participants co-created a collective vision for the future of European democracy.
This process culminated in May 2025 in Vienna, with the presentation of the Citizens’ Charter to Revitalise Democracy in Europe by Navigating Future Crises Together, a set of ten citizen-authored pathways calling for a more democratic, inclusive, and resilient Europe.
The Follow-up Event
Following the conclusion of the pilot assembly phase of the Democratic Odyssey, the project entered a new stage dedicated to dissemination, advocacy, and institutional dialogue, a phase aimed at ensuring that citizens’ voices meaningfully reach the European level. As part of this effort, the Follow-up Event held on October 12th, 2024, at the European Parliament in Brussels brought together eight Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), representatives from the European Commission, and civil society actors, alongside members of the Democratic Odyssey team and citizens that participated in the assembly. The event marked a crucial step in connecting the Citizens’ Charter, the key outcome of the Odyssey Assemblies, with those shaping EU policy. It aimed to strengthen civic awareness, foster mutual learning between citizens and institutions, and build support for participatory and deliberative mechanisms at the European level.
Designed as a hybrid gathering, the Brussels meeting titled “Democracy in Crisis: Should a Permanent European Citizens’ Assembly Supplement the European Parliament?, created an open space for reflection on the process and outcomes of the Assemblies, exploring how transnational citizen deliberation can inform EU decision-making. It also served as a platform to promote the Democratic Odyssey’s European Citizens Assembly model among institutional, academic, and civil society audiences, laying the groundwork for continued collaboration and impact beyond the project’s pilot phase.
Agenda and Flow
The event “Democracy in Crisis: Should a Permanent European Citizens’ Assembly Supplement the European Parliament?” opened with welcoming remarks from Professor Kalypso Nicolaïdis, from Democratic Odyssey, and Sandro Gozi, Member of the European Parliament. Their words framed the gathering as both a moment of reflection and a forward-looking dialogue, linking the citizens’ work across Athens, Florence, and Vienna to the institutional conversations now taking shape in Brussels.
Following the opening, a short video trailer captured the journey of the Democratic Odyssey, tracing the assemblies’ evolution and setting the tone for an exchange between citizens and policymakers.
The core of the event featured interventions from eight Members of the European Parliament: Sandro Gozi, Tomislav Sokol, Daniel Freund, Victor Negrescu, Leoluca Orlando, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Lórant Vincze, and Brando Benifei. Their contributions sparked a rich dialogue in which all recognised the value of the Democratic Odyssey process and contributed to a discussion around the Citizens’ Charter, elaborated by the assembly.
At the centre of the event, members of the Citizen Council, the newly formed group of participants from the Odyssey Assemblies, were invited to share their perspectives. They spoke about the transformative role of participation in empowering citizens, the need to sustain the momentum generated through the assemblies, and the importance of ensuring that the citizens’ recommendations continue to shape future European debates.
A further institutional perspective was provided by Mara Silva Almeida from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, who presented the Commission’s vision on participatory and deliberative democracy, situating the Democratic Odyssey within a broader landscape of democratic innovation in Europe.
The discussion concluded with final remarks from the Vice President of the European Parliament Victor Negrescu, who closed the event by highlighting the significance of keeping channels open between citizens and institutions.
Participants
The hybrid event brought together a total of 373 people from 27 countries, connecting both online and on site at the European Parliament in Brussels. Invitations were extended to all participants of the Democratic Odyssey Assemblies, alongside new audiences reached through open registration and targeted outreach to civil society organisations, networks, and the broader public. Participation was particularly strong from Germany, Italy and Belgium but the event reflected the project’s truly transnational character.
Next Steps
The Brussels Follow-up Event marked the conclusion of the CERV-funded phase of the Democratic Odyssey, completing the series of assemblies and dissemination activities envisioned in the project. While this marks the formal end of the project, the campaign for a Permanent Citizens’ Assembly at the European level will continue beyond the grant period, carried forward by the networks, organisations, and citizens who have shaped this collective endeavour.
In the months ahead, partners and participants will continue to collaborate informally to sustain the momentum of the assemblies, promote their outcomes, and advocate for more participatory and deliberative mechanisms within the EU. The Citizen Council, composed of former participants, will remain a key actor in this effort, acting as ambassadors for the project, supporting outreach and dialogue, and exploring pathways towards a more permanent infrastructure for citizen participation.
Before the close of the project, two main deliverables will be finalised to consolidate its legacy and contribute to the broader democratic innovation agenda:
- A comprehensive evaluation report assessing the overall process, impact, and lessons learned from the Democratic Odyssey.
- Practical guidelines on how to design and implement effective transnational citizens’ assemblies, drawing from the methodologies and insights developed throughout the project.
