Back in September 2023, the Democratic Odyssey set sail on its mission to advocate for a permanent peoples’ assembly for Europe as a way of renewing Europe’s political system.
A year on, the project has evolved into a new phase, and our growing Constituent Network of over 500 policy makers, academics, practitioners, journalists and civil society has worked to set the stage for the assembly’s first in-person meeting.
The Odyssey team is currently in the process of recruiting 200 participants through a variety of methods: first and foremost by sortition (random selection by lottery). On 27-29th September we will then gather in Athens to constitute the assembly and begin deliberating on our crowdsourced topic:
Reflecting on your experience of recent crises,
what needs to change for the EU
to overcome future storms? And, how can we, the people, help better steer the European ship through these upcoming storms?
During the Odyssey’s first long weekend, participants will explore the past, present and future dimensions of crisis management; reflecting on personal experiences, engaging in artistic activities, debates and simulations with the aim of drafting a first statement on what the EU could do to better respond to future shocks.
Following this event, the Assembly will meet again twice, in two cities soon to be confirmed, as well as online, in order to elaborate policy recommendations, accrued throughout the assembly process, to the institutions. We are also organising a festival, press campaign and artistic interventions to make as big a splash as possible in the public sphere!
If you’d like to be involved in the Democratic Odyssey’s Athens meeting there are four ways of doing so:
Option 1:
Take part as a member of our assembly if you are an alumnus who has previously participated in citizens’ assemblies.
More info and registration form
Option 2:
Take part as member of the assembly as a civil society actor:
Registration form
Option 3:
Take part as an observer, including on behalf of other assembly processes, to plant seeds across countries.
More info: LinkedIn Instagram X
Registration form
Option 4:
Take part as a facilitator.
Reach out to: [email protected]
For any other questions, or to request further information, please reach out to the team at: [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can