By Rieke Eschen

17/07/2026 

What does democratic resilience actually look like, once you take it out of a policy paper and put it in a room full of strangers?

Over the past year, "democratic resilience" has become one of the defining terms in Brussels. The European Democracy Shield named it a priority, the Citizens' Engagement Platform is gathering input on it, and this autumn a European Citizens' Panel on Democratic Resilience will bring a randomly selected group of Europeans together to deliberate on it and feed recommendations directly into EU policymaking.

A panel like that can only reach so many people. So this July, Stand Up for Europe tried something on a smaller scale: four free events, open to everyone, built around the same question the official panel will ask this autumn: what does it actually take to keep our democracy resilient? Three of the evenings were picnics in Brussels parks. The fourth was our own simulation of a Citizens' Panel. 

Why Democracy Needs Everyone's Voice

45% of EU citizens don't believe elections in their country are free from interference. 52% say they're personally exposed to disinformation or information manipulation at least once a week. 40% aren't satisfied with the state of media freedom, independence, and pluralism in the EU. Those are the European Commission's own figures, and they lined up closely with what we heard across all four events: the same worries, in different words, coming up again and again without us having to ask for them. July for Democracy was our attempt to close some of that gap between what people are experiencing and what they get to do about it.

Picnics for Democracy: Three Parks, Two Games

Three evenings, three parks: Parc Léopold, Parc du Cinquantenaire, and Parc Josaphat. Each one was built around a game meant to make talking about democracy feel less like a lecture and more like an evening out. Across the three picnics, we played Cards Against Eurocracy and Wolves for Democracy, both designed to get people talking about disinformation, institutional trust, and democratic backsliding without needing any background in EU affairs. Wolves for Democracy in particular pulled people in further than we expected; more than one group ended up arguing about the rules of the game itself rather than the topic at hand, which says something about how quickly people get invested once they're given a reason to argue at all. Every evening ended the same way, with participants writing down their own "goal for democracy," on a card made of seed paper (to be planted rather than thrown away) and directly onto the Citizens' Engagement Platform as well.

Citizens' Panel for Democracy: Deliberation in Practice

The fourth event, hosted at Stam Europa, looked nothing like the picnics. Instead of a game, we ran a three-hour simulation of the European Commission's own Citizens' Panel format: an actual deliberative process.

We opened with a group discussion meant to identify the main challenges to democratic resilience. It was supposed to be one part of a longer programme, but it ran well past its allotted time. People simply had a lot to say, and we let the discussion run rather than cut it off. From there, smaller groups worked on concrete solutions to the challenges they'd identified, before coming back together so each group could present its ideas to the room.

What stood out most was the mix of people in that room. Participants spanned a real range of ages, and it was easy to see how much they were building on each other's points as the discussion went on, the kind of exchange that's hard to describe on a policy page but obvious the moment you're sitting in it.

What People Actually Said

Line up the four events next to each other, and a handful of themes come back again and again, not as talking points, but as things people had clearly already been thinking about before they ever sat down with us.

Disinformation was the one that came up most, and rarely in the abstract. People named specific things: foreign governments and foreign billionaires funding eurosceptic parties, algorithms that reward outrage over accuracy, politicians who lie during campaigns without consequence. What people wanted in response wasn't vague either: enforceable rules with real penalties, not another voluntary code nobody follows.

Just as often, people talked about the feeling that their input goes nowhere: filling out a consultation, signing a petition, and never hearing anything back. People take part, then have no idea what happened to what they said. What was suggested most wasn't a new participation tool, but simply closing the loop on the ones that already exist: telling people what their input actually changed.

Not everything stayed this practical. In the Citizens' Panel, one group spent a long stretch of time on something harder to fix with a policy line: the sense that "the EU" and everyday life are two separate things, and that most people only think about Europe when something's gone wrong. Others in the same group pushed back, pointing to Erasmus+ or the fact that they can cross a border without a passport check, things they'd stopped noticing precisely because they work. Nobody really settled the argument, but it said more about how people actually experience the EU than either side would have on its own.

Where This Goes Next

None of this stays contained to a park bench or at Stam Europa. The ideas gathered across all four events feed into the same debate the official Citizens' Panel on Democratic Resilience will take up this autumn.

As one of the clearest ideas participants shared with us was the importance of knowing the outcome of your contribution, we aim for our July for Democracy to become not only an opportunity to contribute to the EU decission-making processes but also to create a community of involved citizens who will continue to define the future of Europe together. If you want to be part of the very same community make sure to join the dedicated WhatsApp community we have created. 

What these evenings showed us, more than anything, is that people don't lack opinions about democracy. They may lack opportunities to share them, and follow-through once they have. If you couldn't join us this July, the conversation isn't closed: you can add your own voice through the Citizens' Engagement Platform.