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Published: January 31, 2026

Last month Dr. Antonia Christopoulou successfully defended her PhD research ‘Taking participatory democracy seriously: Exploring the content and implementation of an EU constitutional principle’ at Erasmus School of Law (see also her post on LinkedIn). She thoroughly examines the theoretical and normative framework of Art. 11 TEU and critically evaluates how participatory mechanisms are used in practice, including the European Citizens’ Initiative, the Commission’s consultations, lobbying and European Citizens’ Panels. Her research greatly contributes to the academic debate and practical functioning of
the participatory democracy in the EU. A very timely research. Her PhD research was supervised by Xandra Kramer, Linda Senden and Jos Hoevenaars.
Antonia has been a very valued member of our research group and continues to be a fellow of the European Civil Justice Centre. In the meantime, she has continued her academic career at the College of Europe and we expect to see much more of her academic work in the future.