We are told AI regulation is here. But for citizens, the truth is less comforting. For example, the US regulation on AI remains fragmented, and the EU’s model still feels too weak, too technical and too distant from the public…
Europe continues to trap itself in a permanent state of political emergency. From geopolitical instability and economic uncertainty to climatic-pandemic breakdowns and democratic backsliding, crisis management has become the dominant mode of governance. Yet rather than strengthening democracy and citizen…
2025
Sep 16th
Strengthening European Democracy: Transparency, Accountability, and Transnational Civic Space
As a transnational coalition of NGOs committed to safeguarding democratic integrity and civic participation at the European level, Citizens Take Over Europe welcomes the recent advances on the ‘Statute and Funding of European Political Parties and Foundations’ which follows the…
Over a million people from across Europe have supported an initiative to ensure women have free access to abortion. The European Citizens Initiative ‘My Voice My Choice’ is now aiming to collect two hundred thousand more signatures, just to be…
From November 4th to November 12th 2024, the Commissioner-designates, selected by President-elect Ursula von der Leyen, will undergo hearings before the European Parliament. This is a critical moment in European governance, where Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will evaluate…
In April, CTOE launched its Democratic Manifesto, with 10 major democratic demands that - according to the many civil society organisations that are part of CTOE - are of essence in order to push the democracy of the European Union forward. We now – in a timely manner – compared the 2024 European Party manifestos with our 10 democratic points.
On 12 December, the General Affairs Council stated that the “overwhelming majority of the conference proposals and measures [of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFE)] have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented”. The Council,…
Citizens in the Conference on the Future of Europe have called for regular citizen assemblies as a meaningful part of the EU policy process (plenary proposal 36.7). To contribute to the discussion of how this should be achieved, Citizens Take…
Members of the Citizens Take Over Europe coalition have observed the ECP on food waste. We present the following critiques and recommended changes.
With the draft Blueprint for an European Citizens' Assembly, Citizens Take Over Europe calls on citizens as well as European democratic civil society to reflect on their discursive practices and to re-conceptualise their role in European democracy.