14/10/2025 A European Parliament – Democratic Odyssey Roundtable

A European Parliament – Democratic Odyssey Roundtable
📍 European Parliament, Brussels
🗓️ Tuesday 14 October 2025 | 10:00 – 12:00

REGISTER HERE TO PARTICIPATE ON-SITE 
REGISTER HERE TO PARTICIPATE ONLINE 

In times of geopolitical turbulence and growing democratic challenges, Europe faces a crucial question: Should a Permanent European Citizens’ Assembly be established alongside the European Parliament?

On 14 October, Members of the European Parliament, EU officials, citizens, academics, and civil society will gather in Brussels to debate how citizens’ assemblies could strengthen Europe’s democratic fabric and shape the future of democratic innovations worldwide.

Co-organised by the European Parliament and Democratic Odyssey, this roundtable will reflect on the outcomes of a year-long democratic experiment across Europe and ask whether a new permanent institution could enrich and scrutinise parliamentary work.

A Democratic Experiment Across Europe

The roundtable builds on the Democratic Odyssey’s pilot Assembly, which brought together 300 randomly selected citizens from across Europe and beyond in Athens, Florence, Vienna, and online. This year-long pilot Assembly is not the end of the project. Instead, it served as a proof of concept for what can become a permanent European Citizens' Assembly, that would meet alongside the European Parliament.

What lessons can we draw from this first part of the Odyssey’s journey? Who are the actors of change that will join this democratic journey? What do MEPs and other stakeholders think about this vision? What lessons from the ongoing Pollinators Assembly?

This debate is further explored by the Democratic Odyssey consortium in a publication by the European University Institute, with contributions from prominent scholars and MEPs on the overarching needs and conditions of renewing EU democracy, as well as a European Alternatives journal issue on rethinking democracy through assembly permanency. This event will connect these debates with the ongoing work of the AFCO Committee and the Spinelli Group in advocating for structural, democratic change.