The Brussels Citizens' Assembly is the first Brussels political institution made up entirely of citizens drawn by lot.
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Each semester , its members deliberate on subjects falling within the competence of the Brussels region.
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While waiting to become an official institution, the Assembly is organized by the political citizen movement Agora, and its proposals are relayed in the parliament by the elected spokesperson of Agora .
What's new
Cycle 4 - Fall 2022
The fourth cycle of the Brussels Citizens Assembly has begun! It is held from August 30 to December 17 2022. This is a proactive cycle on the environment. Congratulations already to all the assemblists who take up the challenge!
Cycle 3 - fall 2021
The third cycle took place in the fall of 2021 and was again a proactive cycle. The assemblists from the first and second cycle decided that the theme for this cycle would be employment.
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Given the health situation, it took place in a hybrid way with face-to-face meetings, virtual moments and via an online platform.
Welcome
3 > 14/10/21
Information and exploration
15/10 > 22/11/21
Deliberation and
writing
23/10 > 20/11/21
Validation
26/11 > 2/12/21
Celebration and
Evaluation
12/11/21
Cycle 2 - spring 2021
The second cycle of the Brussels Citizens' Assembly was organized in the spring 2021. It was of the reactive type: it positioned itself with respect to five proposals treated in various committees of the Brussels parliament.
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Given the health situation, it primarily took place online, via a platform and videoconferences.
Welcome
20 > 25/4/21
Information and exploration
28/4 > 4/5/21
Exchanges and writing
8 > 29/5/21
Validation
4 > 12/6/21
Celebration et evaluation
19/6/21
Round 1 - 2020
The first cycle of the Brussels Citizens' Assembly was organized in 2020. This assembly was of the proactive type: it produced a Citizen Resolution on a specific theme.
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It chose the theme of housing in Brussels.
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Initially scheduled to complete its work in April 2020, its last meetings had to be moved to the fall given the health situation, and took place online .
The assembly has completed and presented its proposals in December 2020. The work is continued by the representative to the Parliament and his team.
Meeting & framework
30/11/19
Choosing the subject
11/01/20
Exploring the subject
08/02/20
Proposals
07/03/20
Collective writing
Validation & evaluation
Autumn 2020
Online
What is the Brussels Citizens' Assembly?
The Brussels Citizens' Assembly is the gathering of 89 citizens drawn by lot organised by Agora.
This assembly makes it possible to give a voice to the diversity of Brussels and allows a real debate of opinions. It also promotes the development of disinterested proposals and encourages long-term political involvement of citizens.
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Each semester, its 89 members deliberate on subjects falling within the competence of the Brussels region. They learn, discuss, debate and meet with experts before coming together to come up with proposals and decisions. A rotation is foreseen by renewing half of the participants at the end of each semester. This in order to allow for as many participants as possible to experience this form of democracy and to take it with them afterwards.
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The Assembly is made up of Brussels residents drawn by lot. The sample of persons is statistically representative of the population in terms of age, gender and level of education. This Assembly aims to be deliberative because it is based on a diversity of opinions which are easy to share, which allows them to evolve. Finally, the system advocated is intended to be participatory in the sense that every Brussels resident has a real chance to actively participate in the decision-making process.
Who organizes
the Assembly?
The Assembly has no legal structure yet but has the ambition to be institutionalized in the long term. Its objective is to obtain a status and power similar to that of the current parliament, but totally independent of it.
The BCA is initiated and currently organized by Agora, a grass-routs political movement which proposes a form of democracy drawn by lot. More specifically, its objective is to set up and promote the institutionalization of a Citizens' Assembly endowed with legislative power.