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Citizens’ assembly - a group of people selected by lottery from the general population to deliberate on important public questions.

Conference on the Future of Europe - EU-led series of four European Citizens’ Panels in which citizens had the chance to discuss key priorities and challenges and propose recommendations on the kind of Europe they want to live in. The Conference ran for a year, from April 2021 to May 2022. It closed with the presentation of a final report containing 49 proposals and 326 measures to the presidents of the three EU institutions.

Democracy, types of

• representative (electoral, indirect) - a type of democracy where representatives are elected by the citizens.
• direct - a type of democracy where the citizens directly decide on policy initiatives, without elected representatives as intermediaries.
• participatory - a form of democracy where citizens participate in political decisions and policies that affect their lives. 
• deliberative - a type of democracy where inclusive and informed discussions, consensus building and compromise are central to decision-making. 
• digital, internet - a type of democracy where citizens use information and communication technology (ICT) for participating in political and governance processes.

Democratic Odyssey (DO) - a crowdsourced campaign advocating for a permanent Peoples’ Assembly for Europe as a way of complementing Europe’s representative democracies. The process is neither totally top-down (initiated by an institutional authority) nor completely bottom-up (initiated by civil society alone) but follows a third way (initiated, carried and supported by a coalition of actors from all walks of life).

• Consortium - the DO Consortium brings together scholars, practitioners, civil society actors with extensive expertise on assemblies and their connection with hands-on policymaking.
• Constituent Network - a network of over 700 members, open to all who want to be involved in the long-term campaign for a permanent Peoples’ Assembly.

European Citizens’ Initiative - a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling EU citizens to propose new EU policies.