This panel addresses the ever more emphatic challenge of enhancing EU democratic legitimacy and citizen involvement in EU decision making. It does so by analysing the institutional position of European citizens in EU democratic reform processes. The panel focuses on three key reform initiatives or avenues aimed at galvanising citizen participation “in the democratic life of the Union“ (Art 10(3) TEU): democratic conventions advocated by the French President Macron, the proposed overhaul of the European Citizens‘ Initiative, and the right of EU citizens to petition the European Parliament. The panel inquires about the relationship between direct, participatory and representative democracy in the EU and critically assesses the rationale, merits and assumptions that inform these channels of citizen participation. To what extent can they politicise the Union and increase political contestation? What are the obstacles to and the risks of placing the citizen at the heart of EU democracy?