On 26 February 2020, Ms Mireia Borrell Porta, Secretary for External Action and the European Union of the Government of Catalonia, engaged the CIVEX Commission members in an exploratory debate on the opinion regarding the "Local and Regional Authorities in the permanent dialogue with citizens".

Ms Borrell Porta proposed to establish a permanent multi-level participation platform – Network of Open Participatory Governance – jointly coordinated by the CoR with local and regional governments. The voluntary network would facilitate the horizontal exchange of best practices and tools on participatory governance and would complement the existing representative democracy models within the EU with face-to-face deliberation and citizen assemblies that would input to the EU policy-making processes. The proposed model targets to bridge the existing gap between the EU institutions and the people, enable structural dialogue and foster EU citizenship. The rapporteur suggested for the platform to pilot during the Conference of the Future of Europe.

Deputy Head of Unit "Foresight and Strategic Communication" in the European Commission's Secretariat-General, Mina Andreeva endorsed the proposal as responding to the current democratic challenge across the EU of fostering citizen trust and linking them with the EU institutions. She endorsed the key role of elected regional and local officials in bring the people closer to the EU.  

The final text of the opinion is due for adoption at the CoR plenary in May 2020.