KLIMATYCZNY PANEL OBYWATELSKI EUROPEAN UNION LEVEL

Main components of the model

Introduction

The aim of a climate assembly at the European Union level is to settle specific issues related to establishing EU policy on climate protection. Development of recommendations can be split into a series of citizens’ assemblies on climate protection, for which a new group of participants is randomly selected for each topic. Citizens from all member states are invited to participate in a citizens’ assembly, with the number of participants corresponding to the size of their individual countries’ populations. The form of a citizens’ assembly proposed here can be conducted without need for any changes to be made in the European Union Treaty as they take the form of public consultations. It is assumed here that a citizen’s assembly is an advisory body and for this reason its size is intentionally kept small. To make binding decisions on the European level, the formula proposed here can be applied.

In the proposed model, debates at a national level play an important role, as they familiarise societies of the member states with the subject matter of a given citizens’ assembly. The aim is to transfer a debate on European issues to a local level, so that it is conducted in national languages and presented on national media. Only after this stage do participants from all states meet jointly as citizens of the European Union and work out proposed solutions which are then presented to the European Commission and to the European Parliament. According to the proposed model, the European Commission is the organiser of the European Citizens’ Assembly on climate protection and it is managed by independent coordinators — the main team and national support teams.