Publication details
Towards a new democratic interface: Unravelling parliamentarian stances on citizen participation in EU policy-making
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The European Commission, during its last term (2019-2024), pursued a "citizen turn" aimed at bringing EU institutions closer to the citizens via democratic innovations. This shift represents the EU's response to the gap between the institutions and European citizens. The "citizen turn" is evident in initiatives such as the European Citizen Panels and the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). However, research suggests that these initiatives often legitimise pre-existing policy tools, sidelining traditional political intermediaries like political parties and civic organisations (Oleart 2023), thereby bypassing representative democracy. The European Parliament (EP), as the primary transnational representative institution, appears to be embracing the "citizen turn." This is reflected in its September 2023 resolution (2023/2017(INI)), which advocates for the institutionalisation of "representative deliberative participation processes." The resolution proposes the establishment of a structured participation mechanism, termed the European Agora, to be conducted annually. Key questions remain about how the EP and its political groups have approached participatory innovations through both legislative and non-legislative documents since 2019, following the introduction of the CoFoE. Additionally, how the internal power struggles between and within political groups influence the EP's stance on participatory innovations in the EU is still unclear. These research questions will be examined through qualitative content analysis (QCA) (Schreier 2014) of legislative documents (resolutions) and non-legislative texts (press releases, speeches) from the EP and its political groups. Furthermore, roll-call vote analysis and intra-group cohesion (using the Hix agreement measure) will help identify the role of ideological factors such as Euroscepticism and general left-right positioning. Addressing these questions will provide deeper insight into the EP’s and its political groups' positions on enhancing citizen engagement in EU decision-making. These insights will help determine whether the EP seeks to enhance citizen engagement by bypassing the representative body or aims to integrate democratic innovations with Members of the European Parliament. |
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