The Travelling Assembly
Towards a permanent Peoples' Assembly for Europe
[Please note this latest version was made public on 25 May 2025, after the final meeting (External link) of the 2024/25 pilot Assembly]
A Citizens' Charter to Revitalise Democracy in Europe by Navigating Future Crises Together
Our world is changing dramatically! We see profound transformations in our planetary climate, our geopolitics, financial systems, as well as our societies, technologies, cultures.
It is not hard to imagine more future crises, from natural disasters to pandemics, to the crises that will define our collective destiny, climate meltdown, the dismantling of the welfare state, rampant corruption, the disruption of social ties, booming precarity, discrimination and inequality. Europeans are confronting the spectre of war.
The Assembly members of the Democratic Odyssey believe that Europeans have learned a lot through crises, but that we can do better. We call European publics, politicians, civil servants and institutions to take a leap of faith with us.
We must, we can, better navigate through these turbulent times. We must do so democratically. Together, authorities and citizens must envision the crises of the future, avoid them where possible and address them where necessary. The key: prepare, prepare, prepare. Together we must learn from them, learn from our mistakes and success. Use our collective intelligence to consider what is to be done now to tackle future crises.
Let’s always ask not only who already has the power but who should have it. Meaningful action is also in the hands of societies. Whether they act in times of emergency or in normal times, it is in the interest of elected officials to tap into peoples’ real-life experiences, often the best expertise around. But smart action and decisions depend on widely accessible democratic competence.
The Democratic Odyssey, a randomly selected people’s assembly of 300 people from across Europe and from every walk of life and background, have come together for a year to design changes to our democratic landscape that stem from the conviction that citizens need to be involved in the making of the decisions that impact their lives. In our understanding, everyone living in Europe is a citizen and has political agency and responsibility for our collective future. Travelling from Athens to Florence and Vienna, we engaged in deliberation, story-telling, immersive theater or future envisioning, to generate ideas on what needs to change in Europe to democratise our futures.
Can the democratic ideal be reborn? We invite all citizens to reimagine democratic participation beyond elections as translocal, multi-generational, grounded in care for common goods and in symbiosis with non-human life, 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, people would engineer their own democratic resilience before, during and after a crisis, and learn in the process to rely together on democratic foresight.
Our Charter lays out ten pathways to navigate towards this horizon. It acknowledges that crises can affect everyone, anywhere but in different ways. Nevertheless, broad principles can be shared to create a more participatory democratic world across our continent and beyond.
The "Ten Democratic Pathways towards Crisis Resilience"
1. 'Being involved is also our responsibility as citizens!'
2. “Our Money, our Choice!”
3. 'Nothing About Us Without Us'
4. 'Educate to Anticipate'
5. 'Collectivity and self-organization are our power'
6. ‘If People relocate, democracy must follow’
7. ‘Transparency is non-negotiable’
8. 'Care is at the heart of democracy’
9. 'Harness Technology, unleash collective intelligence'
10. 'Not everything has been invented yet'
All Pathways are structured as follows:
- Principle - the guiding vision for this pathway
- Change? The question of what needs to be kept, eliminated, or imagined anew (Athens output)
- Tensions? The difficult conversations or tradeoffs and dissenting opinions raised by this principle (Florence output)
- Steps? How do we get there? What are plausible scenarios? dream scenarios? Opportunities to grab on the way? what we must guard again? (Vienna output)
[Please note this latest version was made public on 25 May 2025, after the final meeting (External link) of the 2024/25 pilot Assembly]
Principle: Active citizenship cannot be coerced: it must become a widely acknowledged right. Participation should not be limited to elections or occasional consultations. Emergencies should not be a pretext for a few decision-makers to ignore the citizens, the very ones affected Our society and our future are our responsibility. Drawing on our life experiences, expertise and dreams, we can all contribute to decisions made before, during and after crises. Whatever our backg...
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[Please note this latest version was made public on 25 May 2025, after the final meeting (External link) of the 2024/25 pilot Assembly]
Change? (Athens spirit)
The Odyssey assembly follows the lead of other similar initiatives and projects that are already widespread around the world, from local assemblies to citizen panels. For Assembly members, “citizens” signifies all those who reside in Europe, not just those with a European nationality. Its main aim is to bring about a scaling up of these efforts. These can be combined with a push for more democratic forms of action like referenda, petitions and the setti...
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[Please note this latest version was made public on 25 May 2025, after the final meeting (External link) of the 2024/25 pilot Assembly]
Tensions? (Florence spirit)
There are many skeptics who may or may not be won over. Finding the right balance between effective governance and democratic accountability involves long and controversial debates. Some in our Assembly argue that strong governments must be able to act rapidly in crises since taking immediate control and centralization are vital in times of emergency. Others say that without citizen involvement, decisions may not reflect people's real needs and prefe...
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[Please note this latest version was made public on 25 May 2025, after the final meeting (External link) of the 2024/25 pilot Assembly]
Steps? (Vienna spirit)
In order to ensure this principle becomes reality we propose the following steps:
1. Develop a toolkit inspired by the DO methodology to convey the idea of citizen assemblies and raise awareness. First, these toolkits should explain why it is important, based on this Charter, and explaining th cost of non-democracy and the value pof participation. Second, it should include “how” to do it by providing concrete plans for local ambassadors (suggestion on how ...
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