The Copenhagen City Council has decided to set up a citizens’ parliament, the “Copenhagen Parliament”, which will be Denmark’s first multi-year municipal citizens’ parliament. The Copenhagen Parliament is a two-year project in which 36 representative Copenhageners will provide the members of the Copenhagen Parliament with recommendations for the development of Copenhagen. In the first year, the members of the Copenhagen Parliament must answer the key question: “How do we together develop Copenhagen with well-being and space for all”.
Københavnertinget is a pilot project that over a two-year period will ensure that Copenhageners are involved to an even greater extent. Throughout 2023 and 2024, the Copenhagen Parliament will provide ideas, recommendations and solutions to various questions from the municipality’s specialist committees on the development of the Copenhagen of the future. In 2024, the Copenhagen Parliament will have new members and make recommendations on a new and yet-to-be-decided issue.
About the Copenhagen Parliament, Anja Englev Olsen, Chief Consultant in Financial Management, says
We are very much looking forward to getting Copenhageners’ recommendations on how we together develop Copenhagen with a focus on well-being and space for everyone. Copenhageners are experts in Copenhagen, and at the City of Copenhagen, we consider the collaboration between the municipality and Copenhageners on the city’s development to be essential. In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on more opportunities for involvement, dialog and participation. With the creation of Copenhagenertinget, Copenhageners now have a unique opportunity to engage in a new and engaging way with a diverse group of other Copenhageners.
We Do Democracy runs the Copenhagen Parliament’s secretariat, and designs and facilitates the process. We Do Democracy has many years of experience with citizen engagement methods and facilitation of citizen gatherings. We Do Democracy always works according to the OECD’s principles of democratic participation, which will also apply to the Copenhagen Parliament. In addition, it will be central for both the City of Copenhagen and We Do Democracy to ensure diversity among the members of the Copenhagen Parliament, so that the Copenhagen Parliament represents all of Copenhagen and all Copenhageners in the best possible way. 50,000 invitations are sent out to random Copenhageners, and a stratified draw is made where the 36 seats are allocated based on criteria such as gender, age, education level, geography, etc.
Zakia Elvang, Director and Partner at We Do Democracy, says about the Copenhagen Parliament:
We are both excited and proud to contribute to Copenhagen’s continued democratic development. The City of Copenhagen’s democracy program contains a number of important initiatives for Copenhageners’ involvement. The Copenhagen Parliament opens an important new chapter where citizen involvement with stronger mandates and political anchoring is tested. This puts Copenhagen at the forefront of the deliberative democracy field alongside capitals such as Paris and Brussels, which have also recently launched their own Citizens’ Parliament. We look forward to working with Copenhagen’s politicians and officials and not least the 36 members of the Copenhagen Parliament.
In connection with the launch of the Copenhagen Parliament, the City of Copenhagen has developed the website www.kobenhavntaler.kk.dk, which will be a unified platform for a number of the municipality’s initiatives to strengthen Copenhageners’ involvement.