‘Utilising the potential of urban society’
The German city of Lüneburg is to have a permanent Citizens' Jury. This was decided by the City Council on 19 September 2024 at the suggestion of the inter-party Citizens' Jury working group. The decision was preceded by a successful test run with an evaluation of the process. The decision is intended to firmly establish this participatory format in Lüneburg.
The plan is to convene the Citizens' Jury once a year. The citizens of Lüneburg will propose topics themselves. All topic proposals submitted will be reviewed, checked (completeness, municipal responsibility, scope) and evaluated (importance, impact, concretisation) by the Citizens' Participation Advisory Council (working title).
Participation strategy being developed
The structure, tasks, procedures etc. of such an advisory board are still to be defined in the participation strategy currently being developed. Until the participation strategy has been drawn up, the Citizens‘ jury intergroup will select the topics for the next Citizens’ Jury on an interim basis. The final decision on what the mini-public will meet for will be made by the City Council.
Lüneburg's Lord Mayor Claudia Kalisch is delighted with the positive vote and the support from politicians. ‘Not everyone can or wants to get involved in party politics. But most people want to have a say, help shape and decide. This was also confirmed by the test run,’ emphasises Kalisch. The response rate for the test run was well above the statistical average for invitations from other municipalities.
‘Utilising the potential of urban society’
The feedback from participants after the Citizens' Jury was also consistently positive. ‘The results have shown us how committed and diverse our urban society is. We will now continue to utilise this potential with the Citizens‘ Jurys,’ says Kalisch.
Eva Kern, who is responsible for citizen participation at the Hanseatic city and also coordinates the Citizens' Jurys, outlines the further timetable and roadmap: “We will now draw up the guidelines for organising the Citizens” Jurys by the end of the year. Suggested topics for the next Citizens' Jury can then be collected in the first quarter of 2025.’
Next Citizens' Jury in summer 2025
Once the City Council has selected a topic, the next Citizens' Jury is expected to meet in summer 2025. 600 randomly selected residents of the city will then be contacted and invited. From all the replies, 30 participants will be selected based on criteria such as postcode area, gender, age, educational background, migration history and children living in the household in order to create the best possible representation of the population. New members are randomly selected for each Citizens' Jury.
20,000 euros have been budgeted for the organisation of a Citizens' Jury. The budget planning is based on one mini-public per year with up to six meetings.
The recommendations drawn up by the first Citizens‘ Jury on the subject of the “Bell House utilisation concept” were presented to the Hanseatic City Council in May 2024 in the form of a citizens’ report.
Second permanent mini-public in Germany
The permanent Citizens' Jury in Lüneburg is the second of its kind in Germany. Aachen was the first German municipality to decide to introduce a permanent citizens' assembly in 2022. This means that, unlike other citizens' assemblies, the mini-public has a legal basis and a permanent organisational structure.
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