Inside the European Commission's Citizens' Panel on Intergenerational Fairness

This episode takes you straight to Europe’s unique effort to look beyond short-term politics: the European Commission’s Citizens’ Panel on Intergenerational Fairness. From September to November 2025, 150 randomly selected citizens from all 27 EU Member States gathered on three weekends to discuss long-term policy recommendations – and on November 16th, Intergenerational Fairness Day, they handed over their final 24 recommendations to European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Glenn Micallef.

Lena was in Brussels for the final session, and in this episode, she walks you through what she witnessed: the debates, the challenges, the learning moments, and the recognition that citizens were shaping a shared long-term vision rather than simply observing it. What exactly is a Citizens’ Panel? How does it work? And what does it mean that its outcome will help shape the EU’s first-ever Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness, due in 2026?
To answer these questions, Lena speaks with three people who helped shape the process from the inside:

• Béla Kuslits, senior ecology officer at the Jesuit European Social Centre, and the coordinator of the Future Generations Initiative
• Petranka Malcheva, policy lead for Health, Long-term thinking and Prevention at the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales
• Deša Srsen, Cabinet member of Commissioner Micallef and the person responsible for drafting the upcoming Strategy

Lena discusses the panel’s purpose with experts, shares their biggest surprises, and what it will take for Europe to truly embed long-term responsibility into everyday policymaking. If you want to understand how exactly Europe is trying to turn intergenerational fairness into political practice, this is the episode you don’t want to miss.

Find out more information about the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations:
https://intergenerationaljustice.org/about-us/who-we-are/

You can explore the European Citizens’ Panel on Intergenerational Fairness on the Commission’s website: https://citizens.ec.europa.eu/citizens-panel-intergenerational-fairness_en and read our full blogpost about the final session here: https://intergenerationaljustice.org/2025/11/25/european-citizens-panel-intergenerational-fairness/.

If you want to dive deeper into the Intergenerational Fairness Day itself, you’ll find more information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergenerational_Fairness_Day or https://intergenerationaljustice.org/projects/intergenerational-fairness-day/
And if you’re new to this podcast, you can listen to all episodes here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2273376

Follow us on Instagram @intergenerationalfairnessday and use the #intergenerationalfairnessday or send us an email to dialog@srzg.de. 

Thank you for listening! 
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CREDITS
Creator/Host/Executive Producer: Lena Winzer
Producer/Editor: Lena Winzer, Svenja Klöckner
Music: Benjamin Cornelius, Background Sounds

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Podcast
• 2:15 The European Commission's Citizens' Panel on Intergenerational Fairness
• 3:39 How did the panel came to be?
• 5:24 How did the panel work?
• 9:12 Interview with Béla Kuslits
• 19:33 Interview with Petranka Malcheva
• 26:55 What did the panel achieve?
• 28:59 Interview with Deša Srsen
• 37:24 Looking forward to the EU Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness
• 38:58 Final words