Europe, an unfinished adventure

From the ancient Greek myth of Europe to today’s European Union, a defining story of our continent depicts it as the cradle and catalyst of democracy. Rather than a narrative of how the self-governance of the Athenian city state from the fifth – third century BC mutated into the EU’s multi-layered democratic governance of the third millenium, it is about Europe’s “Democratic Odyssey“. Precisely during its darkest periods, such as wars, bold visions have catalysed synergies for innovative break-throughs. A case in point: the 1941 “Manifesto of Ventotene” by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, then political prisoners of the Mussolini regime. Their powerful imaginary of a free united Europe spurred post-war popular movements to tear down borders between former war enemies, and later governments to adopt the Rome Treaty establishing the European Economic Community.

As suggested by Zygmunt Bauman, the story of Europe is that of an “unfinished adventure”. Its most recent chapter, initiated by the Conference on the Future of Europe, is about the seminal experiment of doing EU politics and policy making not only of and for the people – but with them. The question of how randomly selected European Citizens Panels could effectively shape the EU reform agenda, and moreover, whether transnational citizen participation and deliberation should become standing EU practice, is at the centre of interest of civil society as much as experts and practitioners.

This project website is designed as a living testimonial of Europe’s ongoing democratic Odyssey. The interested visitor will find commentaries and reports about individual and collective experiences, lessons from past experiments and solutions for tomorrow’s practices, conversations about critical challenges along this journey. Hopefully, it will contribute to the transition from our present interim times towards a more peaceful and sustainable planetary future, updating Kant’s vision for the 21st century.

The innovating European democracy project has grown over the past decade from seeds disseminated in the most diverse habitats within and beyond Europe, from Dublin and Baden-Württemberg to EastBelgium and Brussels, from Strasbourg to Maastricht, Natolin, Dublin, Florence and Athens, from Barcelona, Berlin and Brussels to Copenhagen and Rome, Mazedonia and Serbia…. If the project has caught roots and grown plants in these and ever more places, this is fruit of the joint endeavour by our friends and partners, some of which are named here.