Contribution of the Danish Parliament to the Conference on the future of Eu-
rope
Engaging with Citizens on EU Affairs
Examples from the Danish Parliament
The Danish Parliament’s
European Affairs Committee
has a long and con-
sistent tradition of engaging with citizens in EU affairs, partly due to a high
number of national referenda on EU issues held in Denmark during the past
30 years.
Two such referenda held
in the 1990’s on Denmark’s accession to the
Maas-
tricht Treaty convinced the Danish Parliament to create an EU Information
Office that could offer impartial information to citizens on any EU-related is-
sue through various platforms and events. The office also produces educa-
tion material for upper levels. This year it celebrated its 25
th
anniversary.
The European Affairs Committee of the Danish Parliament has a vast experi-
ence when it comes to organizing both small and big debating events on EU-
related issues, often in cooperation with the Danish government. These regu-
larly held parliamentary events are supplied by numerous citizens meetings
in other fora, where MP’s
and MEP’s participate.
An example of a parliamentary event is the so-called citizens’
hearings
or
‘de-
liberative polls’, which the committee has organized a number of times, for in-
stance in connection with national referenda. The last time such a hearing
was organized was in 2018 as part of the Citizens’ Dialogues on the Future of
Europe. This was realized through an additional allocation from the govern-
ment to Parliament that included hearings in the capital and around the coun-
try.
For these
citizens’
hearings a representative group of 400 people were in-
vited over a weekend to discuss the above mentioned questions with a broad
selection of politicians. The sample was selected by a polling institute to en-
sure that it generally reflected the composition of the Danish population. It is
imperative that the entire set-up is run in a non-biased manner with regard to
the subjects in question.
20. december 2019
Parliament of Denmark
The European Affairs
Committee
Christiansborg
1240 København K
3337 5500
www.ft.dk
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