Phase 2

Meetings

January/February 2021

The Citizens' Assembly took place online in January and February 2021.

Topics

  • Sustainable Development
  • Economy and Trade
  • Peace and Security
  • Democracy and the Rule of Law
  • European Union

Materials

Recordings of the Citizens' Council meetings are available on the YouTube channel of Mehr Demokratie.

Itinerary

General principles for implementation

  • Experts are directly involved in the citizens' assembly as contact persons and "living libraries" with different perspectives and expertise (pro-con).

  • The discussion takes place in the consultation phases in alternating groups and small groups of six to eight randomly-selected people. Easy-to-understand language is used.

  • The mix of participants is balanced so that an exchange takes place between people who differ in terms of origin, age, level of education, etc. Therefore, a sortition procedure is applied via the population registers.

  • Professional teams of moderators and experts support the online sessions.

  • The sovereignty over the citizens' assembly’s agenda lies with the participants themselves and can be adapted by them. Therefore, time and flexibility are ensured during of the citizens' assembly meetings.

  • The proposals developed by the citizens' assembly are presented to all participants for an anonymous vote at the end of the assembly meetings.

  • The citizens' assembly meets in a secure online room, where media coverage and observation by guests (e.g. members of parliament, ministries) is possible to a limited extent, as long as it does not interfere with the work of the assembly. There shall be no public reporting of interim results during the citizens' assembly meeting.

  • There is a live stream of the Citizens' Assembly meetings - however, this will be only possible in the phases of briefing the participants, and not in during the small-group discussions.