PRESS RELEASE
June 2025
Democrazia Deliberativa Europea/ European Deliberative Democracy
A debate at the Literary Society in Verona
“Democrazia Deliberativa Europea. Come difendere la democrazia rafforzando la voce dei cittadini” (’European Deliberative Democracy. How to defend democracy by strengthening the voice of citizens’).
This is the theme and title of the meeting to be held in Verona this Tuesday 10 June 2025, starting at 5 p.m. at the Società Letteraria, in Piazzetta Scalette Rubiani 1, next to Piazza Brà.
Discussing the subject will be Australian philanthropist and entrepreneur Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, founder of the newDemocracy Foundation and co-author of the book The A, B and C of Democracy, from which the dialogue with Giorgio Anselmi (Movimento Federalista Europeo/UEF Italy), Daniela Brunelli (President of the Società Letteraria), Giacomo Cona (Councillor of the Municipality of Verona for European policies), Isabella Fatale (JEF Italy) and Michele Fiorillo (Citizens Take Over Europe) will start.
A new pillar of democracy is being experimented in the EU: transnational deliberative democracy as a tool to counter misinformation and national-populism, also through the introduction of citizens assemblies, with participants drawn by lot – as was the case in ancient Athenian democracy – from the municipal to the European level, on the basis of experiences that have also taken place on a national scale, for example in Belgium, or in Ireland, where assemblies of citizens drawn by lot regularly accompany in-depth debate prior to voting in referendums.
Under the impetus of the academic world, the NGOs, and movements such as Citizens Take Over Europe or the Movimento Federalista Europeo – founded by Altiero Spinelli in 1943 – the European institutions have already introduced an avant-garde innovation during the Conference on the Future of Europe: the European Citizens’ Panels, i.e. a sample of citizens drawn by lot – from all countries and from the various spheres and levels of European society – to dialogue with each other and with experts in order to draw up recommendations that the European institutions should take into account during the legislative process.
“Could this be a first step towards a real European Citizens‘ Assembly as a new participatory institution of the European Union and an ecosystem of multi-level deliberative democracy – from Europe to the town halls, including Verona – potentially capable of preparing the ground for the Convention for the Reform of the European Treaties and for the Constituent Assembly for the United States of Europe?” reasons the ideator of the meeting Michele Fiorillo, researcher from the Scuola Normale Superiore and one of the founders of Citizens Take Over Europe, a European coalition of more than 70 NGOs.
“Democracy as we know it, linked to universal suffrage, was born and developed within the nation state. Today, the crisis of the nation-state has generated the crisis of democracy, but perhaps we are also witnessing the crisis of states with a continental dimension” – Giorgio Anselmi, President of Casa d’Europa and former President of UEF Italy/Movimento Federalista Europeo, deepens the argument.
Luca Belgiorno Nettis, founder of New Democracy and one of the promoters of FIDE (Federation for innovation in Democracy, Europe) concludes: “The role of representative legislative power is frustrated in our electoral democracies: confrontational, short-term and poll-driven. Citizens‘ assemblies chosen by lot, using algorithms to represent the diversity and complexity of the population can lead to a new direct involvement of citizenship in decision-making about the common good, with positive outcomes”.
The event is co-organised by the European Federalist Movement, Citizens Take Over Europe and New Democracy with the kind collaboration of the Società Letteraria di Verona, and is intended to be a first moment of reflection on deliberative democracy in Verona also for future experimentation within the city, provincial and regional institutions.
On this occasion the book ‘The A, B and C of Democracy’ by Luca Belgiorno-Nettis and Kyle Redman will also be presented and distributed.
The graphics of the event are by the Viennese graphist Carolina Marchiori.
