Real Deal Test Cases
REAL DEAL Test Cases 2024: Citizen Assemblies and Deliberative Formats in Europe
In 2024, a series of citizen assemblies and other deliberative events were conducted in the context of the REAL DEAL project in seven European countries and in EU-wide settings, addressing the European Green Deal and related topics, ranging from food systems and biodiversity, to climate and energy justice, air pollution, mobility, to economic topics like the European Semester, climate-neutral and well-being economy, consumption and intergenerational justice.
These events engaged diverse groups of citizens to develop policy recommendations, integrating expert insights, structured deliberation, and democratic decision-making. Below a summary and a factsheet for download of each major testcase of the REAL DEAL project in 2024.
EU-Wide Citizens‘ Deliberation Events
Three medium-scale deliberative events were held at the EU level, each focusing on key elements of the European Green Deal and improved democratic participation.
1. Citizens' Deliberation Event on the Future of the European Green Deal (February 2024, Brussels)
This event brought together 85 citizens from 28 countries to deliberate on four core themes of the European Green Deal (EGD): Well-being economy, Food systems, Mobility, and Circular economy.
Participants were recruited through an open call and snowball sampling, with a focus on inclusivity. The event included expert briefings, as well as innovative feminist moderation techniques and scenario-based discussions, and developed consensus-based recommendations on each subtopic.
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2. Feminist Festival: A Citizens’ Deliberation Event on the Green Transition (April 2024, Brussels)
This event attracted 71 citizens from across Europe and focused on intersectional feminist perspectives on the climate crisis. It was organised jointly by Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). Key topics included: Climate migration, Environmental racism, Energy poverty.
Participants were recruited through an open call and snowball sampling. The festival emphasized bottom-up engagement, allowing participants to shape the agenda. It featured diverse innovative formats such as embodiment theatre and craft sessions, as well as academic presentations. The festival emphasized gender inclusion, accessibility, and safe-space facilitation techniques.
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3. Citizens’ Deliberation Event on Nature and Biodiversity (June 2024, Brussels)
This third EU-wide deliberation brought together 80 citizens from 28 countries, to address key issues about nature and biodiversity, including: Food and agriculture, Chemical pollution, Coexistence with large carnivores.
Taking place directly after the EU elections, the event was highly relevant for ongoing policy discussions, particularly on the Nature Restoration Law. This 3rd EU level event also experimented with innovative methods including speculative policymaking techniques, incorporated arts and storytelling to enrich the discussions.
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National-Level Citizen Assemblies
Beyond the EU-wide events, two similar citizens’ deliberative events were organised on the European Semester (in Denmark and Italy), as well as citizen assemblies in five other European countries: in North Macedonia on climate & air quality, in Serbia and Poland on food systems, and in Greece and Germany on economic themes. In these citizen assemblies participants were recruited by stratified random selection to ensure demographic representation in terms of age, gender (and education and region, where applicable).
4. Denmark – European Policy Lab on Economic Governance (December 2023, Copenhagen)
In this event on economics and the European Semester 50 citizens and civil society representatives participated, recruited by an open call and networks. They challenged traditional economic models, explored well-being economy and discussed how to integrate sustainability into the European Semester.
It was structured as a two-day event preceded by three online sessions. Given the complexity of the topic, the online sessions provided relevant background knowledge.
The policy lab was connected to a parallel activity in Italy, also in the framework of the European Semester and followed-up with a joint event in Rome.
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5. Italy – Online Citizens’ Deliberation Event on the European Semester (April 2024)
This event in Italy was held entirely online, with the aim to ensure broader regional participation. It was achieved that 63 citizens from 16 of Italy’s 20 regions participated, recruited by an open call and networks. The discussions centered on national policy choices within the European Semester framework, such as energy transition, employment, and social rights. Participants engaged in working groups, drafting proposals, and voting on policy recommendations. The event was followed up and connected to the Danish case through a joint event in Rome.
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6. North Macedonia – Climate Assembly on Reducing Air Pollution (February–April 2024, Skopje)
Given Skopje’s severe air pollution crisis, this assembly focused on energy, mobility, and public health policies.
65 citizens from across Skopje were recruited using stratified random selection and gathered in six sessions held during a period of three months.
To support informed deliberation, the Climate Assembly was preceded by two Focus Groups and an expert Delphi panel, and the process included policy scenario discussions. Detailed recommendations for government action were developed and handed over to political bodies, leading to adoption of the Assemblies’ recommendations.
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7. Serbia – Citizens’ Assembly on Food Labelling (April 2024, Belgrade)
This assembly focused on improving food labelling policies to support healthier and more sustainable consumer choices, aligning with the EU Farm-to-Fork Strategy. 70 participants were recruited country-wide by stratified random selection, representative in terms of age, gender, education and region.
The assembly took place during one weekend, with facilitation guided by feminist moderation principles. It was preceded by an expert stakeholder roundtable, which contributed to the development of an informational booklet for the assembly. The recommendations were discussed with a panel of governmental representatives during the assembly.
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8. Poland – Citizens’ Assembly on Food Policy (May–June 2024, Warsaw)
This assembly in the context of Real Deal was Poland’s second nationwide Citizens’ Assembly. It deliberated on how to ensure high-quality and environmentally friendly food by 2030, which also responded to farmer protests against the European Green Deal and making its finding particularly relevant.
65 citizens were recruited nationwide via stratified random selection.
The assembly was conducted during two-weekends, the first focussing on expert briefings and discussions, and the second on policy drafting. It was preceded by an Expert Delphi that helped in the topic framing and served as knowledge input.
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9. Greece – Citizens’ Assembly on Intergenerational Justice & the European Green Deal (June 2024, Athens and hybrid)
The Greek assembly explored fairness in climate policies, particularly in relation to youth participation. It addressed climate responsibility and fair distribution of policy burdens across generations.
63 citizens were recruited with random selection geared for the hybrid set-up with in-person participants from the capital area and the hybrid participants recruited from the rest of Greece.
The event was preceded by focus groups and a roundtable on financing the green transition, which both served as input for the Citizens’ Assembly.
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10. Germany – Citizens’ Assembly on Climate-Neutral Economy & Consumption (June 2024, Berlin)
The citizens’ assembly in Germany examined pathways to a climate-neutral economy with a focus on individual consumption choices and related policy requirements.
60 participants from Berlin and the neighbouring region Brandenburg were recruited by stratified random selection.
The topic was developed based on a prior webinar series on post-growth economics by the project partner FUE. The deliberation was further enriched by an expert Delphi involving 16 experts from diverse economic disciplines, which preceded the assembly. The results provided a well-rounded knowledge base.
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Conclusions
The REAL DEAL test cases have provided vital insights into how different deliberative and participatory formats and their combinations can support citizen engagement on topics of the European Green Deal (EGD). The project demonstrated that the formats such as Citizens’ Assemblies, Group Delphis, Round Tables, and Focus Groups could be adapted to the various contexts and combined to achieve inclusive and meaningful deliberation outcomes. Combining formats is valuable as there is no ‘one size fits all’: different formats serve different purposes of citizens’ and stakeholder participation and deliberation. The combination of Citizens’ Assemblies and Delphi groups represents a key innovation in enhancing knowledge input for deliberative processes. This approach helps bridging the gap between experts and citizens by presenting both areas of consensus and points of disagreement among experts.
Furthermore, it was very successful that the cases were prepared and conducted in joint efforts of different actors, both project partners, environmental and sustainability NGOs as well as local democracy practitioners. All parties contributed with their respective expertise in different roles.
In summary, the test cases in REAL DEAL demonstrated that the combination of deliberative formats can meaningfully support the EGD. It provided a strong foundation for promoting participatory governance and democratic innovation across Europe.