The EU for Global National Citizen’s Panel in Riga, Latvia took place on 27 November 2025, hosted by Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation LAPAS. The objective of the panel was to bring together citizens in Latvia to discuss the role of the EU in the world, with a specific focus on community resilience, active citizenship and solidarity. The Citizens’ Panel was organized in conjunction with the Global Education Week in Riga, to ensure broader visibility and reach a larger audience.
Building on these discussions, the panel generated a set of concrete recommendations aimed at different levels of governance. The recommendations of the national Citizens’ Panel in Riga are congregated around three levels of policy making, the EU level, the National level and the Local Level:
European Union Level
- Enhanced Communication: Increase the sharing of local civic initiatives, ensuring they are accessible in national languages and simplified formats.
- Expert-Led Dialogue: Prioritize expert-driven insights over purely political debate to ensure evidence-based policymaking, especially engaging experts from local level.
- Climate Equity: Reduce the financial gap between the Global North and Global South to ensure equitable support for climate adaptation and mitigation.
- Civic Empowerment: Increase funding and structural support for civic education and advocacy activities, accessible also to the local level organisations.
National Level
Education & Capacity Building
- Curriculum Reform: Integrate civic engagement, climate science, critical thinking, and media literacy into school curricula and teacher training programs.
- Skills Development: Expand vocational training programs to meet evolving labor market needs.
- Public Awareness: Elevate climate change on the political agenda and fund awareness campaigns that use clear, jargon-free language.
Governance & Transparency
- Electoral Accountability: Improve the national electoral accountability to increase the direct responsibility of elected officials.
- Administrative Transparency: Mandate that civil servants publicly communicate long-term strategies and implementation plans to citizens, engage them in consultative processes.
- Financial Integrity: Strengthen the monitoring and control of financial flows within global partnerships to prevent corruption and improve equal cooperation
Media & Civil Society
- Journalistic Integrity: Support independent media watchdogs and safeguard investigative journalism, especially at local level.
- Digital Governance: Review and improve media accessibility/ accountability and improve the moderation of online public discourse.
- NGO Integration: Reposition NGOs as strategic partners in governance rather than perpetual opposition.
- Regional Equity: Ensure regional diversity is respected, guaranteeing that rural areas meet national standards for health and education.
Local Level
- Civic Engagement: Foster a culture of active citizenship through regular public dialogue and accessible information on how to get involved.
- Municipal Values: Strengthen democratic standards and values within local government administrations.
- Sectoral Adaptation: Support local entrepreneurs and farmers in adapting their operations to climate change.
- Global-Local Links: Utilize international city partnerships to share “best practices” and broaden local perspectives.
- Strategic Outreach: Focus on “active listening” and target-group-specific messaging to address global challenges at a community level.
To read all the recommendations collected throughout Europe during Local and Transnational Citizens’ Panels, click here.
The EU for Global project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CERV. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
