European citizens’ panel invites citizens to contribute to new EU budget

This weekend, from 28-30 March, the first session of the European Citizens’ Panel on the new EU budget takes place in Brussels.

As part of this European Citizens’ Panel, 150 randomly selected citizens from the 27 EU Member States will meet to discuss which EU-funded priorities and actions bring the most added value to Europeans. The panellists represent the diversity of the EU both geographically and in terms of gender, age, education and socio-economic background. This first session will be followed by a second online session (25-27 April) and a third and final session in Brussels (16-18 May).

The panel is part of a broader initiative by the European Commission to engage in a dialogue with citizens on the future EU budget, to make it more focused on EU priorities, simpler to operate and more impactful through new sources of national, private and institutional funding, before proposing a new long-term EU budget in 2025. The panel’s work also stems directly from the 2024-2029 political priority “Delivering results together and preparing our Union for the future”, which called for a new budget tailored to our ambitions.

In parallel, the Citizen Engagement Platform (an online discussion forum) is open to contributions and opinions from the general public. The Platform’s contributions feed into the panel’s deliberations. In turn, the final recommendations of the panel will support the preparation of the next EU budget in the longer term. Together with the recommendations of the citizens’ panel, the online contributions will feed into the proposal for a new long-term EU budget from 2028 onwards.

The plenary sessions on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning will be webcast live via the Citizens’ Participation Platform. In addition, accredited journalists are invited to participate in the panel in person.

More information: European Commission