Brussels, 24 February 2023
Today, the Commission is hosting a European citizens’ panel in Brussels allowing citizens to formulate recommendations on a vision, principles, and actions to ensure that virtual worlds in the EU are fair and fit for people.
The panel will provide a list of recommendations that will support the Commission’s work on virtual worlds and on the future of the internet. It will help shape the principles for virtual worlds centered on people and European values, respecting European rules. The Commission also publishes the results of the study ‘Extended reality: Opportunities, success stories and challenges‘ assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the use of extended reality technologies in the healthcare and education sectors, which will feed into the initiative.
Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, will welcome 150 citizens in Brussels who have been randomly selected in the 27 Member States. They will exceptionally be joined by citizens from Ukraine today, to mark Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified aggression.
Vice-President Šuica said:
“Since the Conference on the Future of Europe started, citizens’ panels have become a regular feature of our democratic life, in which citizens have a direct say on EU policy-making. The citizens’ panels open a new phase of deliberative democracy and will give citizens the opportunity to provide ideas and recommendations on key initiatives that will impact their lives. These panels are also a celebration of democracy. On this particular occasion, to show our unwavering support to Ukraine one year after Russia’s brutal invasion, we have invited some Ukrainian friends to join us and share their testimony.”
This is the second new generation citizens’ panels launched as a follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe, as announced by President von der Leyen in her 2022 State of the Union speech, to foster citizens’ participation in the European Commission’s policy-making process on certain key policy areas. The first next generation citizens’ panel on food waste took place between December 2022 and February 2023.
Source – EU Commission