Strasbourg Alegre

Following on from the recent Notre Europe Deliberative Poll and the European Citizens' Consultations, both under the aegis of the European Commission's Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate; on 8 and 9 November the other major institution, the European Parliament opened its main chamber for citizens to debate and share in the political space, with the first Citizens' Agora. The name evokes images of the Athenian city state deciding on its political priorities in the market-place, where every citizen had an equal voice but how did the modern reality measure up?

Who participated?
This was a different model from the Deliberative Poll or the European Citizens' Consultations, here the participants were explicitly from organised civil society and had some clear knowledge of the issues involved. There were participants from all the states of the European Union, including many from the new member states such as Latvia, Poland, Slovenia and Malta and even the presence of a delegation from Macedonia who are keen to accede to the EU. The diversity of nationalities was clear but rather than aiming for a random sample of unafilliated ‘ordinary' citizens, the Agora chose to bring together the organised civil society sector, such as non-profit organisations, charities and voluntary movements.
This approach by the Parliament is based on a separate theoretical perspective, that suggests that there are certain advantages in building links with organised groups as they may bring key knowledge to the discussions. This approach is similar to the South American model of citizen engagement, such as the World Social Forum; it does not attempt to represent the views of the whole of civil society, neither does it intend to capture the views of the ‘average citizen', instead at its best it is built on the premise that in order to rebuild trust and transparency in governance:
a) existing civil society organisations are able to bring specific expertise and awareness of communities; and b) they provide a vast network of engaged citizens ready to react to changes in policy in some of the most desenfranchised communities, thereby creating a powerful multiplier effect on communication from civil society to the parliament.

What were the results?
The themes chosen were very broad, such wide-reaching areas as ‘Tools', ‘Rights', ‘Borders', ‘Tasks' and ‘Horizons' which included eveything from the potential of the new European Treaty; to the instruments needed to facilitate citizen participation; to the reality of European policies surrounding immigration. Many discussions developed the key beliefs and aspirations of participants and there were important aspects, such as the section on Rights which re-affirms the belief that rights should be equal for all residents, including immigrants, "As a goal to be reached in the near future, all people residing within the borders of the EU should acquire the same rights." This is supported by the intention that the governments of Europe should recognise the role of citizens: "We call on the EU institutions and Member States to acknowledge that they do not exist without citizens. The European institutions must therefore adopt working methods that take systematic account of the real lives of people within the Union."
The workshops called for continuity and consolidation of a forum to allow a wide range of civil society actors to contribute in the decision-making process. The section under the title ‘Horizons' provided the structure for future Agora meetings and there is an initial plan for regular events with a more focused remit and a more refined agenda, this would provide a useful platform for more inclusive discussion with civil society: "while bearing in mind that no organisation can claim to represent civil society as a whole, the Agora should be established as a permanent structure representing and consulting civil society within the European Parliament". In order to be credible, the Agora would have real co-decision-making power, so that it, "would have to be consulted before decisions were taken on any matter of concern to citizens and would have to be granted sufficient financial resources to ensure its long-term existence", however the final format for continuity remained somewhat diffuse.

Next steps
This event was prepared in a very short space of time and had some draw-backs; there was not the same type of structured scientific method as the Deliberative Poll; nor did it reach such a wide scope of participants in every country as the European Citizens' Consultations; but in spite of this, the backing of the European Parliament offers a real possibility of consolidating an effective channel for citizens to have a real impact on decision-making in Europe. In this format involving organised civil society, the choice of participants is crucial, so one key prospect in the future is to expand the membership and elaborate a transparent list of participating organisations; there should be a clearer set of key themes, as expressed at the meeting, "membership would vary depending on the subjects it deals with (thematic agoras bringing together people with specific areas of expertise)"; and participants should be involved in setting the agenda and following up on proposals. The next Agora is scheduled for the first half of 2008 with a thematic focus on the Environment.

The reality is that there is a need to consolidate participatory democracy and to bring together the lessons of each of the recent experiments into a shared practice for the European Commission and Parliament to guarantee that the momentum is not lost. This forum offers a different model - the presence of organised civil society groups allows for highly informed debate and the sharing of information to thousands of further members. This model may in fact have good potential of continuity, due to the organised nature of participating groups with their own research and campaigns; and could perhaps run in combination with a random cross-section of citizens as parallel groups that together would reflect a fuller picture of civil society as a whole, that could meet in the Strasbourg Parliament building while it sits empty for 3 weeks of every month!

For this to work as a tool it must have real impact to ensure that citizens, civil society organisations amd the media feel that it is a worthwhile forum. It may act as a part of a package of reforms at the EU level to facilitate more responsive institutions in Brussels. While civil society participation should not replace the European Parliament, since that is the only body of the EU that is directly elected by citizens; but it may act to ensure more transparent choices and more accountable mechanisms of decision-making, leading to more effective governance.

For all the results for the Citizens' Agora see:
http://forum.agora.europarl.europa.eu/jiveforums/forum.jspa?forumID=16