GUIDELINES ON HOW TO IMPLEMENT FUTURE RANDOMLY SELECTED ASSEMBLIES AT TRANSNATIONAL LEVEL 

In recent years, a growing body of practical literature has emerged offering toolkits and guidelines on how to design and implement Citizens’ Assemblies. These assemblies have become a cornerstone of democratic innovation, enabling randomly selected citizens to deliberate on complex issues and make collective recommendations. Yet, most of these assemblies remain defined by border realities, being these local, regional or national. 

Nevertheless, the challenges societies face today are systemic and transnational: from the climate crisis to migration, digital governance, and economic inequality. 

Despite this, there are still few examples of Citizens’ Assemblies that transcend borders, or that interconnect them. Among these pioneering efforts are the Global Citizens’ Assembly on the Climate and COP (2021) and the Conference on the Future of Europe. However, the field of transnational deliberation is yet an open space for experimentation. 

The Democratic Odyssey is one such experiment and a first of its kind. It is an itinerant transnational assembly that travels from city to city across Europe, bringing together participants recruited locally and others joining across borders. This moving format introduces unique challenges: logistical coordination, linguistic diversity, cultural mediation, and, not least, the absence of a formal political mandate. 

These guidelines draw directly from the lived experience of the Odyssey, not as a literal account of how it unfolded, but as a reflection on the lessons gleaned from our trials and missteps. They are written from the perspective of committed civil society actors who believe that democracy must evolve alongside the realities it seeks to govern, realities that are interconnected and global.