Towards a Peoples' Assembly for Europe

Never before have so many generations been alive at the same time on our planet. To face the evolving complexity of geographical, social and political boundaries to what our collective imagination would suggest as structural solutions, we need to talk, disagree, negotiate and ultimately agree at local, national and transnational levels. We need to reinvent a new transformative, trans-local democracy and do it together: a democracy with foresight. To explore this horizon, the Democratic Odyssey set sail in 2023 along six streams:

A Beacon – A blueprint for a permanent Peoples’ Assembly for Europe, also proposing a theory of change for scaling up the participatory turn in the EU (also see our e-book on this).
A Pilot Assembly – to serve as a ‘proof of concept’ for such a vision, starting in Athens in September 2024 and ending in Vienna in May 2025, where the final Citizens’ Charter will be announced.
A participatory platform - to ensure that the Assembly (a so-called “mini-public”) connects structurally with the general public
A Constituent Network – the bedrock of support for the Assembly process, a network of organizations and individuals who play the role of “friends of the Assembly’, helping to design, run and evaluate the pilot assembly.
A Modular Framework - the methodology for designing, running and evaluating the permanent Assembly, co-designed by the Constituent Network.
A Collaborative Campaign – a crowdsourced and decentralized campaign promoting this long-term vision for democratic change in Europe

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Ship's Log

The journey continues: Democratic Odyssey docks in Florence

The next stop of the Democratic Odyssey is Florence for the second stage of its journey towards reimagining democracy in Europe.

We sail toward Florence! The third meeting of the DO’s Pilot Assembly

On 21-23 February 2025, we plunge into the rich democratic history of Florence and Fiesole. There, the local institutions will host the travelling members of a Peoples’ Assembly for Europe, an event that marks a pivotal moment for our joint Democratic Odyssey.

Open Call: Observers for the Democratic Odyssey Transnational Peoples' Assembly

The Democratic Odyssey is a unique crowdsourced campaign, advocating for a permanent peoples’ assembly for Europe as a way of renewing Europe’s political system.

Using Arts to Navigate Democratic ‘Storms’

This year, the Democratic Odyssey team organized a participatory event that gathered all participants of the EUI’s ‘State of the Union’ Conference in the Badia Cloister to find answers to the big question of today: What needs to change in Europe to navigate future storms?

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