lang="EN-US">Today, 23 February, a new European Citizens' Panel kicks off in Brussels. 150 randomly selected citizens from all 27 Member States will discuss the benefits and challenges of increasing energy efficiency, and how households, businesses, and communities should act. Energy savings have played a key role in tackling the energy crisis and are an important component of the European Green Deal and our plan to reach climate neutrality by 2050. Over the course of three weekends, citizens will formulate recommendations that will influence future EU policies and feed into a Commission Recommendation on the "Energy Efficiency First" Principle to be addressed to the Member States.
The panel will be complemented by a new Citizens' Engagement Platform, an easily accessible online platform that enables all EU citizens to join the debate and take a seat at the table. It will provide a forum for all EU citizens to share their ideas and exchange with others on topics of EU importance, in all 24 official EU languages. The plenary sessions of the European Citizens' Panel will be web-streamed on 23 and 25 February on the platform. Other Citizens' Panels will follow in 2024.
Background
The European Citizens' Panel and the new online Citizens' Engagement Platform deliver upon calls for stronger citizen involvement in EU policymaking that were made during the Conference on the Future of Europe. Following President Ursula von der Leyen's priority to build a European Democracy Fit for the Future, the European Citizens' Panels and online citizens' engagement tools have been embedded as regular feature of democratic life in the EU.
European Citizens' Panels allow participants to work together in groups of 12 and in plenaries. A facilitation team provides support, alongside a committee of experts who provide additional input. Participants in European Citizens' Panels are recruited through random selection with recruiters using tools to generate valid mobile and fixed line telephone numbers at random. To ensure that Panels reflect Europe's socio-demographic composition, the process ensures that recruitment is representative of EU diversity. A quota system ensures a gender-balanced panel and specifies that young people aged 16-25 must represent a third of the panel. Other socio-demographic characteristics relate to education level, geographic location, and occupation.
The Citizens' Engagement Platform is a key part of a new ecosystem of citizen engagement, which takes the online form of the revamped "Have Your Say" portal, delivering upon a commitment of the follow-up communication to the Conference on the Future of Europe.
