A new push for European Democracy or citizenwashing? The Conference on the Future of Europe and the Commission’s European citizens’ panels

During the last decade, the EU has innovated in its political practices of 'citizen participation’. Situated by the Von der Leyen Commission (2019-24) as a pillar of the priority ‘A new push for European democracy’, the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) culminates this process through the inclusion of a set of European citizens’ panels, in which EU institutions increasingly decouple ‘citizen participation’ from civil society and the idea of a European public sphere. This political direction has been further reinforced by the organisation of a set of five ‘new generation’ of European citizens’ panels on specific issues (food waste, learning mobility, virtual worlds, energy efficiency and tackling hatred in society) uniquely under the umbrella of the European Commission. The chapter describes the way in which the CoFoE and the new generation of European citizens’ panels unfolded, and what are its gender implications from an intersectional feminist perspective. The chapter argues that, in spite of the high activity and amount of innovations in terms of citizen participation, they have not meaningfully contributed to democratise the EU. Instead, the ‘new’ methods implemented throughout the Von der Leyen Commission are coherent with the preexistent technocratic EU political dynamics and may constitute an effort of citizenwashing.