The institutional ‘success’ of the CoFoE via the ‘new generation’ citizen panels: The European Commission leads the public-private ‘citizen turn’

The paper analyses the outcome of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) as perceived by the organisers and whether it advanced the cause of EU democracy. The evidence reveals that in spite of the strong discursive emphasis on the importance of ‘citizens’ in the process, the CoFoE outcome illustrates a shift in the traditional relation between EU institutions and EU citizens, which is increasingly oriented towards reaching out ‘directly’ to ‘citizens’. The paper delves deeper into the process of the public-private institutionalisation of citizens’ participation in the European Commission, and casts light on the increasing EU inter-institutional struggle to ‘own’ citizens’ participation. To this end, it analyses setting up and the evolution of the new generation of citizen panels – including those already conducted on food waste, virtual worlds and learning mobility. The paper concludes by arguing that this type of citizen participation is not ideology-free, and that it mostly reproduces the ideology mobilised by the organising institution, the Commission.