Democratic Odyssey Transnational Assembly

The Democratic Odyssey and its crowdsourced campaign is advocating for a “permanent peoples’ assembly for Europe” by mobilising a wide-ranging and pluralistic group of actors, including academics, practitioners, journalists, institutional representatives and civil society. Inspired by the tentative efforts of past EU legislatures to institutionalise citizen participation, it seeks to go further.

Where?

To make the case, we embarked on a journey with a pilot assembly  to engage in multilingual, transnational deliberations, traveling to different European cities, meeting both in-person and online and planting the seeds for further citizens’ engagement in each port. First port of call: Athens.

When?

September 27-29th, 2024, a date which also corresponds to the beginning of a new institutional cycle of the EU with a new Parliament and before the hearings of the Commissioners. Our Assembly helped crowdsource the many approaches to democratic resilience in the shadow of crisis with the aim to take our part in agenda setting in Europe for the next five years.

Who?

The pilot assembly started with more than 230 members, who will remain members for a year until 1st September 2025, and will continue to grow as it travels to other cities. Members of the assembly were randomly selected by lottery both from 29 countries from across Europe including EU candidate countries, and locally, from Athens and the Attica region, both Greek and non-Greek citizens, including migrants and refugees. The criteria for wide representation included age, education, social economic, and attitude to Europe. Alumni citizens from prior assemblies and civil society organisations were also randomly selected.

What?

This pilot Assembly’s mission is to demonstrate the agenda-making power of citizens’ deliberation to tackle the challenges of our time – one of several functions of a permanent assembly. We were interested in how past crisis changed the relationship between the people and the institutions of their city, their country and the EU, but also their relationship with each other across borders.

So we asked a double question of members of the assembly:
“Reflecting on your experience of recent crises, what needs to change for the EU to overcome future storms? AND: How can we, the people, help better steer the European ship through these storms?”

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT