Three Changes Needed to Strengthen Digital Citizen Participation

Democracy is eroding globally, and in Europe there is growing concern about dependence on global technology giants.

As a result, supporting digital participation platforms developed in Europe has become an increasingly important part of strengthening societal resilience and Europe’s technological sovereignty. These platforms are seen as enabling citizens to influence decision-making between elections, providing decision-makers with deeper insights into public opinion, and supporting better-informed governance.

Despite the strong case for the long-term development of digital citizen participation, those developing digital participation opportunities continue to face similar challenges across Europe.

In spring 2026, Sitra and the international organization mySociety, which promotes digital citizen participation, interviewed 35 European experts and platform developers in the field. The discussion continued last week at a roundtable in Brussels organized by Sitra and the German think tank Bertelsmann Stiftung.

The message from interviewees and participants in the roundtable was clear: if digital citizen participation is to genuinely support public decision-making and strengthen citizens’ trust, European actors must work together and focus on removing the most significant barriers. Achieving this requires three key changes.

1. Digital citizen participation must convince decision-makers

A leadership gap is holding back digital citizen participation. Participation platforms are often perceived by political leaders and senior public officials as risky options.

This is partly due to a lack of awareness. Perceptions of digital participation are often shaped by social media, leading decision-makers to fear trolling, inappropriate behavior, and loss of control.
It is therefore no surprise that participation platforms may seem fruitless compared to the limited tangible benefits leaders feel they receive in return.

From the perspective of European democracy, this leadership gap is a major challenge. Without strong strategic ownership, digital participation solutions will not scale into core public administration functions across Europe.

Going forward, developers of digital citizen participation must become better at demonstrating the benefits to decision-makers and dispelling unfounded fears. Well-documented examples of best practices and peer learning among decision-makers can help. Carefully designed and managed pilot projects, with the primary aim of strengthening and broadening digital participation capabilities within public administration, including at the leadership level, can also lower the threshold for adoption.

2. Digital participation must be more closely linked to decision-making

What value do digital participation platforms offer for different groups? For citizens, they provide an easy, time- and location-independent way to express opinions, lowering the barrier to participation. They can also complement and enrich face-to-face participation methods.

From the perspective of decision-makers, a key challenge is that the outputs of digital participation often remain too disconnected from decision-making processes. This is partly linked to the leadership gap, but there are other factors as well.

Participation platforms are rarely integrated into administrative systems. They generate data in formats that public administrations are not always accustomed to using. Another issue is limited understanding of political decision-making and administrative processes: few platform developers have deep expertise in decision-making cycles, while public administrations still lack sufficient digital participation specialists.

Without strong bridges between these actors, the connection between digital citizen participation and decision-making remains weak, and its benefits cannot be systematically strengthened, clearly demonstrated, or measured.

We need more effective collaboration networks and forums where public administration actors and platform developers can deepen mutual understanding and strengthen the compatibility of participation platforms with administrative processes.

3. Public procurement practices must be simplified and procurement expertise improved

At some point, discussions among digital citizen participation experts inevitably turn to public procurement—and for good reason. Providers of participation platforms are often small actors who find public procurement processes rigid and bureaucratic.

A particular challenge concerns platforms based on open-source software. Procurement can be even more difficult in these cases, as public sector buyers often lack expertise in acquiring open-source solutions.

Public procurement frameworks also rarely allow contracts that would enable flexible co-development between platform providers and public sector partners during the contract period in response to emerging needs. As a result, some providers no longer offer their platforms to public administrations, instead seeking clients in other sectors such as NGOs or academia.

The European Commission’s recently published open-source strategy is an important step forward. It aims to facilitate procurement of open-source solutions and strengthen Europe’s open-source ecosystem. Nevertheless, procurement processes for digital participation platforms, both open and proprietary, still need to be streamlined more systematically within the public sector.

Strengthening the resilience and democracy of European societies is urgent. None of the challenges described above will be solved overnight. However, solutions exist for all of them, as highlighted in the Brussels workshop and in the expert interviews conducted by Sitra and mySociety.

By joining forces more effectively across Europe, those working to advance digital citizen participation can build a future where digital participation is an established and essential part of European democracy.