What does it take to make democracy more resilient? For the European Commission, one answer is to listen directly to citizens.
This September, 150 citizens from all 27 EU Member States who were selected by lottery came together in Brussels for the first session of the European Citizens’ Panel on Democratic Resilience. Over three weekends between September and November 2026, they are exploring what can make European democracies stronger and more resilient, and developing recommendations for the European Commission.
At Sortition, our role begins well before citizens enter the deliberation room.
We are responsible for the democratic lottery to find participants from all across Europe, working with our SORT-EU network of national partners. The aim is not simply to find 150 people willing to participate, but to create a group reflecting the diversity of the European population.
Why the democratic lottery matters
A citizens’ panel can only reflect society if its selection method has a fair and equal chance to reach people from across that society. People who are already politically engaged, highly educated or accustomed to consultations are often easier to reach. But a citizens’ panel needs people with different ages, educational and socio-economic backgrounds, geographical experiences and attitudes towards the EU—including people who may never have taken part in a deliberative process before.
That is why the democratic lottery is such an important part of every citizens’ assembly or panel.
The process combines broad outreach with a democratic lottery designed to produce a diverse and representative final group. Citizens are invited by lottery to participate and then selected in a second lottery according to transparent criteria.
From thousands of potential participants to 150 citizens
The democratic lottery for a European Citizens’ Panel is a complex, Europe-wide process. Our team works with partners in all 27 Member States to identify and reach potential participants.
We start by selecting locations, not people. Using population and urban-rural data from Eurostat, we lottery-select 150 places across the EU—parts of cities, towns and rural areas—weighted by population and geographic diversity.
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Once locations and addresses are selected, trained local recruiters from our trusted SORT-EU partner network go door-to-door. They explain the process, invite residents to register their interest, and reassure them that no special knowledge or political expertise is required—just a willingness to listen, share and deliberate.
A second lottery then selects the final participants according to the agreed criteria, creating a group whose diversity reflects the EU population as closely as practical.
The lottery changes the question from “Who wants to participate?” to “How can we create a group that reflects the people who make up EU society?”
A topic that concerns everyone
Democratic resilience can sound like an abstract institutional concept, but the Panel is approaching it from the perspective of citizens’ everyday experiences.
Participants are considering how people access and assess information, whether they feel heard, how they engage with others, and how citizens and communities can participate meaningfully in democratic life.
This makes diversity particularly important. There is no single European experience of democracy. People experience institutions, public debate, information and participation differently depending on where they live, their age, background and experiences.
Bringing these perspectives together—and giving people the time and information to deliberate—is one of the strengths of the citizens’ panel model.
From lottery to deliberation
The first session took place in Brussels from 18–20 September, where participants explored what democratic resilience means in their everyday lives and identified the challenges they considered most important. The second session, taking place online from 16–18 October, will build on these discussions and begin developing recommendations. The final session will return to Brussels from 20–22 November, when participants will refine their ideas into recommendations for the European Commission.
The process therefore moves from individual experiences, to shared understanding, to collective recommendations.
And it all starts with who is in the room.
Democracy starts with who gets to participate
For us, democratic lotteries are not simply a technical method for filling seats. They are the most legitimate way to open up democratic participation beyond the people who normally participate.
The European Citizens’ Panel on Democratic Resilience is an opportunity to demonstrate this principle at European scale: 150 people, selected from across 27 countries, coming together not as politicians, lobbyists or representatives of organised interests, but as citizens.
Their task is to consider how democracy can become more resilient—and to bring their own experiences and ideas into that conversation.
Because if we want stronger democracies, we need democratic processes that give ordinary citizens a meaningful opportunity to shape them.