The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has made a commitment to directly communicate with citizens. He asked all Members of the College "to be politically active in the Member States and in dialogues with citizens, by presenting and communicating our common agenda, listening to ideas and engaging with stakeholders" (Mission letters to all Commissioners).

Vice-President Andrus Ansip and the Commissioners of the Project Team "Digital Single Market" are active in many Member States and engage with citizens and stakeholders on a broad variety of questions around the Digital Single Market strategy.

The Commission promotes direct exchanges of views between Commissioners and citizens, notably by organising Citizens' Dialogues across the EU. The Dialogues are the place where citizens can express their views on EU policies and thus participate in building a Europe to which they can relate. Each event attracts an average of some 300-500 participants as well as 1,500-2,000 active followers of the webstream and in social media. The Dialogues are always local/regional events, but they get through media reporting and through the involvement of citizens from other regions or even across Member States borders a pan-European or national dimension.

Find more information on Citizens' Dialogues near your place on http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-dialogues. You can participate also by watching the live webstream on this site and by asking your questions and making your comments on Twitter with the hashtag #EUdialogues

The Citizens' Dialogues are organized under the motto "It's about Europe. It's about you. Let's talk". Their aim is "rebuilding the bridges" with the citizens. Therefore they convey the general messages that:

• All citizens have a personal stake in Europe; Citizens' Dialogues help to discover this and to claim ownership;
• Commissioners are coming to town and are willing to engage in an open and honest dialogue with citizens;
• The Dialogues are not one-off events but part of an ongoing debate which takes place on the whole territory of the Union.

Citizens' Dialogues are a strategic communication tool. They are synchronized with the major initiatives based on the 10 political priorities and accompany the (legislative) process from the Commission proposal until the implementation on the ground. Citizens' Dialogues will focus on those Member States where the major initiatives are particularly important and/or sensitive. In the mid-term perspective the Citizens' Dialogues are to become a sounding board for major policy initiatives of the Commission.