The European Commission, during its last term (2019-2024), pursued a "citizen turn" aimed at bringing EU institutions closer to the citizens via democratic innovations. This shift represents the EU's response to the gap between the institutions and European citizens. The "citizen turn" is evident in initiatives such as the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE). However, research suggests that these initiatives often legitimise pre-existing policy tools, sidelining traditional political intermediaries like political parties and civic organisations (Oleart 2023), thereby bypassing representative democracy. The European Parliament (EP), as the primary transnational representative institution, appears to be embracing the "citizen turn." This is reflected in its September 2023 resolution, which advocates for institutionalising "representative deliberative participation processes." Key questions remain about how the EP and its political groups have approached participatory innovations through both legislative and non-legislative documents since 2019, following the introduction of the CoFoE. Additionally, how the internal power struggles between and within political groups influence the EP's stance on participatory innovations in the EU is still unclear. These research questions will be examined through qualitative content analysis of legislative documents (resolutions) and non-legislative texts (press releases, speeches) from the EP and its political groups. Furthermore, roll-call vote analysis and intra-group cohesion will help identify the role of ideological factors such as Euroscepticism and general left-right positioning. These insights will help determine whether the EP seeks to enhance citizen engagement by bypassing the representative body or aims to integrate democratic innovations with Members of the EP.

The paper offers insights into the opinions of Polish decision-makers on citizen assemblies implemented at the local government level. The author draws on interpretive, qualitative empirical research - in-depth interviews with three groups of local political actors who commissioned or participated in the implementation of 9 citizen assembly processes in major Polish cities between 2016 and 2021. The aim of the study was to identify the successes and failures attributed to these innovative deliberative processes by political and social actors directly involved in their commissioning and implementation. On this basis, it was determined which of the elements/characteristics of the citizen's assembly most significantly affect the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of decision-makers with the decision to commission and implement it. Because they are at the heart of modern representative democracies, their involvement and support is fundamental to the success of any change within democratic systems. Their attitudes and assessments are therefore also crucial to the success of innovative deliberative projects, and the result of discerning these assessments and attitudes can be a better conceptualization of future deliberative institutional designs.

Energy citizenship is vital in the energy transition discourse, emphasizing inclusive decision-making to enhance policy legitimacy (van Veelen & Eadson, 2020). Proponents argue that engaging citizens and civil society in governance can address challenges, improve social acceptance of renewable energy projects, promote equitable policy implementation, etc. (Mullally, Dunphy & O’Connor, 2018). However, debates persist over structuring participation, ranging from market-based consumerist models to bottom-up, community-driven approaches (Wahlund & Palm, 2022). The paper examines how energy citizenship is framed in parliamentary debates in Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia. By analyzing these discussions, we uncover how political actors link energy citizenship with democratic innovations in governance. The research explores the tensions between top-down and bottom-up approaches and the interplay between energy citizenship and broader goals, such as energy security and decarbonization. Our study also addresses a significant research gap by focusing on the role of parliamentary debates and political parties in shaping energy citizenship, moving beyond grassroots-level studies. By analyzing narratives in Central European parliaments, we reveal how political actors strategically frame energy citizenship to align with objectives like democratic participation. This provides a nuanced understanding of the political dynamics underlying energy transitions, offering insights into how parliamentary discourse influences policy design, implementation, and public acceptance.

In an era of proliferating crises, effective crisis communication that fosters citizen agency and engagement is critical for compliance and successful crisis resolution (WHO 2022). Conversely, threat-based and fear-inducing communication risks fostering disengagement, as seen with “pandemic fatigue” (White, Ishizumi, and Lavery 2024) or “climate doomism” (Johnstone and Stickles 2024). While EU institutions emphasize the importance of citizen agency, there is a significant gap in understanding how they construct citizens’ roles in crisis communication. Theoretically grounded in poststructuralism and the concept of the performative constitution of agency, this unique longitudinal study addresses this significant research gap by employing a multi-method approach to analyze the discursive construction of citizen roles and agency in EU institutional crisis communication - a topic with implications for both policy effectiveness and citizen engagement. It examines the crisis communication of two key EU institutions, the European Commission and European Parliament, through a large dataset of 957 tweets and 3,383 press releases and spanning an extensive temporal horizon of 13 years, from August 2011 to June 2024. Content analysis helps identify whether and how citizens are included in the communication, the roles ascribed to them, and how these practices evolve over time across different crises. Critical discourse analysis is used to explore the discursive strategies and linguistic means used to construct citizens’ roles and agency. From a policy perspective, the study offers actionable insights for fostering engagement through more participatory crisis communication, addressing the challenges of a permanently crisis-oriented governance landscape.