The European Commission’s citizens’ panel on preparedness begins its third and final session in Brussels on Friday and will run until Sunday, with participants due to hand over recommendations to EU officials at the end of the weekend.
The panel brings together 150 randomly selected citizens from all 27 EU member states and has been meeting for almost three months, the Commission said on Thursday.
Participants are expected to finalise recommendations on how to implement the EU’s “preparedness union strategy” — a plan adopted in March 2025 to strengthen the bloc’s ability to prevent and respond to emerging threats — and deliver them on Sunday to Maciej Popowski, Director-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.
Recommendations to be published online
The preparedness strategy lists “active engagement of citizens” as an element of crisis readiness and includes programmes to raise public awareness, including the citizens’ panel.
The recommendations will be published on the European Commission’s citizens’ engagement platform, where a livestream and recordings of plenary discussions will also be available.
