The European Commission is today launching a new Citizens’ Panel, during which citizens from the 27 Member States will discuss how learning mobility can be made available to everyone in the EU. The Commission explains that the Citizens’ Panel on learning mobility, which will meet three times between March and April 2023, “is part of a new generation of Citizens’ Panels, following-up on the Conference on the Future of Europe, to foster citizens’ participation in the Commission’s policy-making process on certain key policy areas”. The Citizens’ Panel is part of the consultation strategy ahead of the Commission’s proposal that will be presented later this year. “Citizens will contribute to the public debate in sharing their thoughts and providing recommendations on learning mobility”. Among the needs that will be taken into account is to offer new possibilities to people with fewer opportunities, including “the opportunities digitisation might offer in this context”.
The first session will take place on 3-5 March in Brussels, and will be opened by Commissioner for Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel. The second meeting of the Panel will take place online on 24-26 March. The third and final meeting will be held on 28-30 April in Brussels. The Panel is composed of around 150 randomly selected citizens, representing the diversity of the EU in terms of geography, gender, age, socio-economic background, and level of education. Moreover, one third of the participants in the Panel are under 25 years old.