Citizens’ panel delivered recommendations for the EU’s next long-term budget
The May 2025 deliberations brought 150 randomly selected residents into a formal consultation process.
News report
A European Citizens' Panel completed its final session in Brussels on May 18, 2025, delivering recommendations for the European Union's next long-term budget. The panel brought together 150 randomly selected citizens from all 27 member states.
The European Commission's May 20 account recorded 22 recommendations and 11 guiding recommendations from the process. Participants considered a range of spending priorities, including regional infrastructure, education, healthcare access, digital skills and support for smaller businesses.
The panel worked in small groups as well as full sessions, supported by facilitators and expert input. Its role was to develop recommendations for institutions to consider, rather than to approve a budget or replace the elected and governmental bodies involved in negotiations.
The Commission said input from the panel and its online engagement platform would accompany the budget proposal as an annex. The subsequent published budget documentation includes the panel recommendations, preserving a way to trace public input alongside the formal proposal.
The development is significant as a documented stage of consultation: citizens' discussions were converted into a written set of proposals with an identified destination in the policy process. It does not mean that every recommendation was adopted or funded. Budget decisions continue through the relevant EU institutions. The public recommendations and accompanying documents allow readers to compare what participants proposed with later institutional choices, keeping the distinction between deliberation, proposal and adoption visible.