Closer connection with citizens among impacts seen from citizen participation initiatives in EU
This brief summarises the main findings and takeaways of the study 'Citizen Engagement Impact on Policy, Institutions and Society', which sheds new light on the impact that democratic innovations, including citizen participation and deliberation, are having on policy, institutions and society. Highlights include: Citizen engagement exercises in the EU are bringing citizens closer to policymaking, and 97% of public administrations in the EU surveyed said that they would conduct citizen engagement again in future, citing reasons including the need to improve policy quality, reflect community needs and strengthen democracy and legitimacy. The survey also found that the biggest contributing factors to impact, according to public administrations, are the level of political commitment to the exercise and public communication of the topic/media coverage. Citizen frustration/dissatisfaction with the lack of policy impact, in particular the slow follow-up and implementation of recommendations, was frequently mentioned. This points to the need for thorough plan-ning in order to anticipate and manage these issues. The long term legitimacy and accountability of these processes may be at risk if political will to follow-up on recommendations is unclear.
DUNLOP Tessa;
KOZAREV Ventseslav;
GUIMARAES PEREIRA Ângela;
ROSA Paulo;
2025-07-09
European Commission
JRC142828
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC142828,
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