On 15 March 2024, the conference “Visionary ways of engaging citizens: the future of deliberative democracy in Ukraine” gathered about 60 representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Parliament, Cabinet of Ministers, local authorities, association of Ukrainian cities, CSOs, international organisations and international experts, including 30 online participants.
The participants discussed opportunities and challenges of deliberative democracy mechanism, which are a specific form of citizens engagement in political decision making far beyond public consultations or surveys. Deliberative democracy is gaining increasingly importance as a valuable democratic instrument complementary to elections and the organisation of deliberation in form of citizen assemblies is becoming more and more popular across Council of Europe member states. Experts highlighted, that especially in a country like Ukraine, where the organisation of regular elections is not possible under the current martial law, deliberative mechanism could be used as an alternative form to make sure citizens voices are heard and their will is reflected in the decision-making regarding the reconstruction and recovery of the country.
During the conference, the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2023)6 on deliberative democracy, as well as practice examples of successful citizens’ assemblies, including in post-conflict settings like Lebanon, Kosovo and BiH or at EU level were presented. The participants and experts also exchanged on the perspectives and challenges of citizen engagement during the war and in the post-war context in Ukraine and discussed about the possible implementation of citizen assemblies in the country. Experts highlighted the unifying effect of deliberative processes, as they bring citizens of different sectors and back grounds on one table to develop jointly solutions on diverse community problems and challenges. Especially in war or post war conditions, they can provide an important space for dialog and constructive co-existence.
Last but not least, concrete plans were outlined to pilot citizens’ assemblies in two territorial communities Zvyahel and Slavutych in 2024 with the technical support of Council of Europe in the framework of the project “Strengthening democratic resilience through civic participation during the war and in the post-war context in Ukraine”. The conference concluded with the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with the mayors of the two municipalities and Council of Europe Depute Head of Office, paving the way to organise the first citizen assemblies in Ukraine before the end of the year.
