The first citizen consultation of project REACH

On Monday 25^th of November the first citizen consultation of the project Reinventing Engagement through Affirmative Citizen Consultations (REACH) took place in Athens. The objective of this series of events is to encourage citizen engagement with issues that impact society directly.

Through a combination of local, national and transnational events, the project seeks to empower those often excluded from the decision-making process. In addition, to give participants more opportunity to share thoughts and opinions, the MladiRini youth portal will focus specifically on collecting written contributions. At the end of the project, a comprehensive Transnational Volume publication will be produced, showcasing insights and experiences from the local, national, and transnational events. This Transnational Volume will be presented at a final conference in Brussels, where event delegates, national-level stakeholders, and EU policy experts will discuss the project and its results.

On Monday, the participants enjoyed the opportunity to discuss the three themes of the event: the Environment, European Enlargement, and the Rule of Law. They were guided in the debates by the three speakers of the event, PhD candidate Rania Papadopoulou, Associate Professor Susannah Verney and Professor Dimitris. A Sotiropoulos.

A key takeaway from the event was the participants thirst for debate, and the enthusiastic atmosphere, revealing that when presented with opportunities such as these, citizens are keen to get engage with policy issues and offer opinions on European challenges.

In the words of a young participant: ‘Our voice must be heard now’, the gap between European citizens and the bureaucratic operations of the EU must be minimised.