Participatory Deliberation . . . and Then?

This paper outlines the political issues raised by the 2009 European Citizen Consultations (ECC) for European Communication. Under the aegis of the European Commission, various types of Entrepreneurs for Europe (associations, businesses, think tanks, and NGOs) were involved in designing and organizing the ECC. This process involved national and face-to-face consultations based on the mini-public principle and Web-based deliberation platforms in each of the 27 member countries. Citizens were invited to produce recommendations on the economic and social future of Europe intended for MEPs before the European elections of June 2009. The analysis of this experience highlights the binding nature of the political architecture of the EU as it relates to the implementation of deliberative democracy at the European level, which leads to the blurring of boundaries between public communication and participatory deliberation in generating support for the EU. It also shows the shortcomings of European communication, the importance of mediators whose actions may be contradictory in practice, and the unexpected behavior of citizens when taking part in the various phases of the ECC, who were sometimes reluctant to express their opinions within the framework defined by the Entrepreneurs who sought to educate them on the virtues of Europe as much as to reveal the ephemeral and fragile development of their sense of European belonging.