Since he took office in 2014, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has worked hard to make the EU more democratic. The EU has made it a priority to engage with Europeans and discuss the issues that matter to them. President Juncker asked his team of European Commissioners ‘to be politically active in the Member States and in dialogue with citizens’. This engagement has now become a widespread movement to listen to citizens and share their views with decision-makers all over Europe. Commissioners and other EU staff have travelled far and wide across Europe to talk with people, who have expressed their opinions on a range of issues. From asking the EU to tackle unemployment, to fighting climate change, no issue is out of bounds. It is not just the Commission that takes part in Citizens’ Dialogues, other EU institutions have joined in too. The European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of the Regions are now all engaging directly with Europeans.
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