The Danish Parliaments public hearing on European policy issues

The Folketing's Public Hearing on European policy issues was held from 29 – 30 April 2006 at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense . The Folketing had entered into a contract with an independent operator that was responsible for holding the hearing under the supervision of a steering committee with the participation of Government officials from the Folketing and representatives from a TV-station.

Link to the further information about the hearing.

The purpose of the hearing was to:

Engage the public more extensively in the debate on the EU's official period of reflection.

Provide impulses for the political process in Denmark and the EU through the expression of opinions that have broader currency among the public than those provided by normal opinion polls and other instances.

Demonstrate willingness to enter into a dialogue with voters on the principal lines of Danish European policy.

The hearing focused on the following thematic questions:

Which of the cross-border problems that Europe is faced with should be given special emphasis in order to find solutions to them – and which role should the EU play in this connection? The idea is that participants will arrange these challenges in order of priority.
Which problems connected with cooperation in the EU are most significant? The idea is that participants will arrange the EU's internal problems in order of priority and decide possible ways of solving those they consider most pressing.
Where are the borders of Europe? The idea in this connection is to allow participants to weight a number of factors that determine whether the EU should have more or less close relations with neighbouring countries around the EU and then classify these neighbours in accordance with future EU affiliation.

The framework of the hearing

The framework of the hearing was as follows:

a) Approximately 400 participants was chosen as a representative sample of the Danish voting population on the basis of a major opinion poll regarding their attitude to European policy issues.

b) The participants was personally invited to take part without receiving remuneration, but also without expenses.

c) The participants received brief, non-biasedinformation material before the arrangement was held.

d) The arrangement lasted for two days and will not solely be serious, but also popular and enjoyable.

e) Most of the work was carried out in groups led by an experienced chairman to ensure that everybody expressed their opinion.

f) The arrangement was strictly neutral in relation to the subject being discussed.

g) Leading politicians and well-known experts participated in panel debates with the participants. In addition, parties and movements was allotted rooms in connection with the hearing where representatives had the opportunity to follow and comment on the hearing and participants could contact them in order to discuss certain matters.

h) The hearing was arranged in collaboration with a major nationwide TV channel, TV2, that helped to spread the debate among the public with the help of comprehensive coverage of the arrangement itself.

i) There was a number of PR and communication initiatives in order to bring knowledge of the hearing and the discussions into a number of media and maintain them in the minds of the public for a considerably longer time than the weekend that the hearing lasted.

j) Among other things, participants expressed their attitudes to the subjects debated by filling in questionnaires and also evaluating the various aspects of the hearing.

k) The results of the Public Hearing was included in the report that the European Affairs Committee will handed over to the Prime Minister before the meeting of the European Council in June 2006.

29/06/2006/ANDK