Verian recently supported the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in organising a series of co-creation workshops that brought together citizens from ten EU Member States. The workshops formed part of the development of the European Democracy Shield, a new initiative aiming to strengthen democratic resilience, counter disinformation and enhance meaningful participation across the Union.
Working closely with the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy, Verian helped design and deliver ten workshops in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Participants were selected through a probability-based panel approach to ensure broad societal representation, with each workshop inviting citizens to imagine how democracy should look like in 2035 and to propose practical actions to get there.
Citizens identified challenges from their experience, including information overload, distrust in institutions, and limited opportunities for constructive engagement. They also offered concrete proposals: strengthening civic and digital literacy, improving transparency and accountability in political communication, providing secure and intuitive civic-tech tools, and expanding participatory budgeting and youth engagement schemes. Many participants called for more regular, direct channels between citizens and decision-makers, as well as clear safeguards against disinformation and foreign manipulation.
The findings from the workshops informed the design of the European Democracy Shield, which was adopted on 12 November 2025, which underpins the work of the Commission on democratic participation, civic education and information resilience in the next few years. We are proud to have supported the JRC in this process and to have contributed to a participatory approach that prioritises citizens’ experiences, needs and expectations.
If you would like to learn more about our work on citizen engagement, democratic participation and foresight-driven policy design, please get in touch with our team.