At the heart of the European Citizens' Panels (ECPs) is a powerful idea: giving ordinary people across the EU a meaningful voice in shaping the future of Europe. But how can you give everyone in the EU an equal chance of being among the 150 people who take part in the panels and represent the diversity of over 400 million citizens as accurately as possible?
Our answer is a two-step, lottery-based process designed to be fair, transparent, and inclusive.
Step 1: From Every Corner – The Location Lottery
We start by selecting locations, not people. Using population and urban-rural data from Eurostat, we lottery-select 150 places across the EU – cities, towns, and rural areas – all weighted by population and geographic diversity.
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EU-wide Final Location Selection for the EU Budget ECP: full map and a close-up of one part
Once we’ve selected the locations, trained local recruiters of our trusted SORT-EU partners network go door-to-door. At each site, they invite residents to register their interest in participating in a panel. They knock on doors, talk about this opportunity, offer reassurance, and explain that no special knowledge or political expertise is needed – just a willingness to listen, share, and deliberate.
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To make participation accessible for everyone, we support communication in all European languages, offer in-person, over the phone and digital registration options to overcome barriers that often limit participation.
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By the end of this step, we aim to gather a pool of around 750-1000 potential participants – five times the number needed. Why so many? Because true representation requires choice and flexibility.
Step 2: From Interest to Inclusion – Fair, Stratified Selection
We use StratifySelect, our open-source software developed in conjunction with academic partners, to lottery-select a representative sample: the 150 people who are invited to participate in the European Citizens’ Panel. This isn’t just random – it’s a lottery selection that is also fair. Our software selects a group that matches specific demographic, geographic, and attitudinal targets: gender, age, education, occupation, region, urban/rural balance, and views on the EU. The result is a mini-public that mirrors the broader population of the EU.
And because life is unpredictable, we also rely on an extensive reserve list to replace anyone who withdraws – again, carefully matching the profile of anyone who steps back.
For the first European Citizens Panel of 2025 on the new EU budget, 963 people registered their interest after recruiters from our SORT-EU network visited the 150 locations selected by lottery from all across the EU to match DEGURBA (DEGree of URBAnisation) targets. Our partners knocked on over 23,000 doors.
After the sortition lottery took place, the 150 selected people were asked to confirm their availability. Some people were too busy to actually commit, or had ongoing health issues etc., and had to be replaced, but thanks to the large pool of interested registrants, it was still possible to satisfy the targets.
This is how the demographic profile of the finally selected participants looked like:
Charts of set targets (by gender, age, education, occupation, EU attitude, geography and type / size of settlement) in the 1st column, all respondents in the 2nd column and selected participants in the 3rd column.
Why It Matters
We don’t just want participation – we want legitimate participation. That’s why we prioritize:
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Equal chance: Every citizen has an opportunity to be selected.
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Equity: We go the extra mile to include people who might otherwise be left out.
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Transparency: From invitation letters to live lottery options, we keep the process open and understandable.
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Trust: Face-to-face conversations at the doorstep help establish confidence in a process that may be unfamiliar.
Beyond Selection: Sustaining Engagement
Because the panels don’t happen immediately, we maintain engagement with regular updates via SMS, email, and even online meet-ups. Our bridging strategy keeps the future participants informed, connected, and excited – even months after the first knock on the door.
And for the commissioning body, in these cases the European Commission, our live dashboard offers real-time insight into lottery progress and demographic breakdowns, helping to adapt and respond to challenges on the go.
Final Thought
Recruiting for a European Citizens’ Panel is not just about selecting names – it’s about selecting voices. Through our carefully designed process, we ensure those voices reflect Europe in all its richness, as best as possible, ready to deliberate and help shape decisions that affect us all.
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We are currently finalising the recruitment and selection of participants for the European Citizens’ Panel on Intergenerational Fairness and the Young Citizens’ Assembly on Pollinators, both of which will begin in September 2025.