On 15-16 February 2018 the European Movement International with the ALLiance for Democracy hosted 100 creative and innovative Europeans from 23 different countries at a two-day workshop in Brussels, which was held to come up with new ideas on how to reinvigorate European democracy.

The work is continuing today at #48hDemocracy! All the groups are deep in discussion! Next presentation of ideas is coming up, so stay tuned ? pic.twitter.com/uH3b1pRjWg

— European Movement (@EMInternational) February 16, 2018

Over the course of the two days the participants, who came from a diverse range of backgrounds including activism, film making, academia etc., were asked to work in groups to create concrete project proposals to be carried out by the members of the ALLiance to boost European democracy and ultimately to increase the number of voters at the 2019 European Elections.

Our 100 are hard at work about #48hDemocracy. Innovation, co-creation, participation across ideological or national divides and beyond our professional silos and personal preconceptions. For democracy and for the European idea. pic.twitter.com/GcWmNX9kjI

— Petros Fassoulas (@PetrosFassoulas) February 15, 2018

As the work began it quickly became clear that the room was full of creative and out-of-the box thoughts on how to get Europeans excited about democracy and get the EU institutions to listen and engage with  citizens in new ways.  The concepts conceived by the participants included a European Box of Joy, a box designed by a European artist which would travel around the EU to collect stories about what makes the Europeans happy. Others included town hall-style meetings where MEPS would meet the public without being allowed to speak and a proposal for a participatory EU budget in which citizens via direct votes would be able to distribute a small percentage of the overall European budget.

We created a post-it-storm, I am starting to think that 48 hours are not enough ? #48hDemocracy #Dreamocracy @WhyEuropeORG @EMInternational pic.twitter.com/WqBEpwt5lN

— Max (@imo_gv) February 15, 2018

The ideas will now be considered by the European Movement International and its’ partners in the ALLiance for Democracy. Although not all ideas will necessarily come to fruition, they are all being taken in to consideration and those selected will be taken forward in order to secure support and funding.

Pictures from the event can be found here.