Brussels, May 17 2009: New insights into how Europeans relate to EU issues will emerge within a fortnight from an unprecedented and very practical experiment taking place just outside Brussels

The EuroPolis research project into the possibilities of informed democracy will bring 400 citizens together from across Europe at the end of May, to spend three days debating immigration, climate change and European Union decision-making.
EuroPolis will measure their attitudes at the start of the event, on May 29. Then at the end of the event, on May 31, a further check on their attitudes will reveal how far the opportunity for debate has altered their views.

Leading members of the EuroPolis research team will set out the plans and aims for this event at a media briefing in Brussels on May 28 (14.30, International Press Centre, Residence Palace, Brussels – Salon Room).
Media will also be allowed access to the three days of debate (taking place just outside Brussels) on May 29-31 (at the Dolce conference centre, 135 Chaussée de Bruxelles, La Hulpe).
A EuroPolis press conference in Brussels on June 3 will report on the initial findings from this unique experiment in European democracy (14.30, International Press Centre, Residence Palace, Brussels – Magritte Room).

The EuroPolis project will provide a real opportunity to assess just how feasible democratic engagement can be at European level. It is a test-bed for participation in democratic politics.
The project, supported by the EU’s FP7 and by European foundations, uses the Deliberative Polling methodology developed by Professor James Fishkin of Stanford University to assess opinion transformation as a result of political awareness and informed debate. This is the first time the technique has been used in this way on this scale in Europe.

A fuller timetable of the EuroPolis project – which is also conducting a parallel assessment of a control group through a Europe-wide telephone survey – appears below.

Further information from the EuroPolis press office: EuroPolismedia@gmail.com, direct line +32 495 402 666. More details of the project are also available on the EuroPolis website

The EuroPolis timetable May–July 2009

• Project status as of Saturday May 16: The first telephone survey has been completed among 4,300 citizens, exploring attitudes to immigration, climate change and European Union decision-making. 400 of these citizens have been selected to take part in the experimental group of participants in the Deliberative Polling event in Brussels on May 29-31, and have been provided with briefing materials on climate change, immigration, and EU decision-making. Another 1,000 of the citizens that took part in the telephone survey have been selected as a control group.
• Thursday May 28: Europolis media briefing, 14.30, International Press Centre, Residence Palace, Brussels – Salon Room, with project leader Professor PierangeIo Isernia of Siena, and Professor James Fishkin of Stanford, setting out objectives and methods for the Deliberative Polling event.
• Friday May 29 am: The 400 citizens participating in the Deliberative Polling event arrive at the conference centre in La Hulpe, and answer the first written questionnaire.
• Friday May 29 pm: The participants start working group discussions on immigration with moderators and policy experts.
• Saturday May 30 am: Plenary discussions on immigration
• Saturday May 30 pm: Working group discussions on climate change and climate change plenary discussions
• Sunday May 31 am: Concluding plenary session on immigration and climate change with policy experts
• Sunday May 31 pm: Participants answer second written questionnaire, and return home
• Wednesday June 3: EuroPolis press conference to present initial results from the event: 14.30, International Press Centre, Residence Palace, Brussels – Magritte Room
• Monday June 8: Start of second telephone survey of the 1,000 citizens in the control group and the 400 participants in the event.
• Mid-June to early July: EuroPolis conducts initial analysis of responses to second telephone survey of 1,000 citizens and the 400 participants in the Deliberative Polling event.
• July: release of initial results from analysis of responses to second telephone survey, with comparison between the views of the 1,000 citizens in the control group and those of the 400 participants in the Deliberative Polling event.