La Asamblea Itinerante

[Please note this is a work-in-progress version of the draft, made public on 4 May 2025]

Citizens’ Charter for Democratic Resilience

Calling to European Publics, Politicians and Institutions from the Assembly Members of the Democratic Odyssey

Our world is undergoing rapid transformation: changes in technology, climate, international relations, society and culture mean that everybody is faced with challenges. Recent years have seen a multiplication of crises across Europe, whether in localised floods, fires or buildings collapsing, or structural crises such as inequality, discrimination and influx of migrants, or massive acute crises like the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change or war. As we navigate change and uncertainty, more crises are likely: how we prepare for them, avoid them where possible and address them where necessary and learn from them is what is going to make the difference.

The Democratic Odyssey starts from the conviction that people need to be involved in this process: it concerns all of us, and it is everyone’s responsibility!

Through a randomly selected People’s Assembly for Europe, meeting in different configurations in Athens, Florence, Vienna and online, 400 people living all over Europe, from every walk of life and background, have come together over 9 months to innovate a new model for democracy in Europe. Taking inspiration from historical experiences of assembly and pluralism in these cities and more, we 400 people have generated ideas for how democracy can be made fit for purpose in the 21st century. 

What better way to ask this question than to explore what happens in times of crisis? How can citizens learn from their own experiences of crisis to help the EU better steer its way through future storms? What needs to change in Europe to democratise future thinking?

We believe democracy needs to be renewed, expanded and embedded if it is to be our guiding principle in navigating change in Europe and beyond. It needs to be renewed beyond elections to involve more regular participation, to be expanded to ensure that everyone concerned is included, and to be embedded in every aspect of our lives, from the family to the school, workplace and public services, as well as every level of government. If this were to happen, ordinary people would engineer their own democratic resilience before, during and after crisis, and learn in the process to rely together on democratic foresight.

Such democratic renewal requires not only institutional reform but also a cultural shift—an ethical transformation anchored in solidarity, mutual respect, and deep listening, whilst not ignoring the political cleavages, conflicting interests and outlooks which are the core of democratic politics. 

We affirm the role of civic arts and storytelling in facilitating profound dialogue, allowing expression of difference, cultivating empathy, and strengthening the social bonds necessary for participatory governance. Artistic and embodied practices offer vital tools to surface lived experience, heal collective wounds, and imagine futures grounded in dignity and interconnection.

In an age marked by ecological crisis and digital transformation, this Charter calls for democratic practices that also represent non-human beings, future generations, and planetary systems. It invites us to reimagine democratic participation as a multi-species, multi-temporal dialogue, grounded in care for the commons and ecological reciprocity.

Our Charter lays out ten paths to navigate towards this horizon. It calls for interconnected assemblies of people across the territory of Europe, acknowledging that crises can affect different places in different ways but that our collective response must be coordinated. Ultimately it calls for a permanent People’s Assembly for Europe to catalyse, give voice to and sustain this participatory democratic infrastructure across the continent. 

Nota to drafters: 

1. Each path is encapsulated in a motto drawn from citizen quotations during our assembly meetings.
2. This is followed by a statement of the principle or goal, elucidated by three points

• Change? The question of what needs to be kept, changed or imagined (Athens agenda)
• Tensions? The difficult conversations or tradeoffs and dissenting opinions raised by this principle (Florence agenda)
• Steps? How do we get there (Vienna agenda)

Below, you will find the "Ten Paths towards democratic crisis readiness".