The COVID-19 pandemic has posed enormous challenges to the state and society in health, economic, social and political terms. Randomly selected dialogue forums are intended to help come to terms with the pandemic. They are working alongside a fact-finding commission appointed by the German Bundestag.

Parliament established the Enquete Commission on “Reviewing the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lessons for Future Pandemic Events” in September 2025. It is examining how risk assessment, early detection and crisis management can be made more effective in future pandemics. In doing so, it aims to bring together insights from the fields of healthcare, the economy, education, social affairs, politics, international cooperation and public communication in order to initiate targeted structural improvements. The commission comprises 14 Members of Parliament and 14 external experts.

Four regional dialogue forums

The Enquete Commission is supported by four regional dialogue forums, each with 150 participants. Participating citizens are invited to speak about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, to exchange views and to present their perspectives to the German Bundestag. Members of the Enquete Commission and the Chair may attend the event as observers.

Five fact-checkers are to be present on site for each regional forum, whilst a further 15 fact-checkers will be available online. During the sessions, including the small-group discussions, the experts will be available on site or online to answer questions directly, carry out fact-checks, provide feedback on proposals and assist with similar formats. The experts will only respond to questions from participants; they will not influence the discussions.

To involve all participating citizens as effectively as possible, the dialogue forums will deliberate not only in plenary sessions but also in various group formats (e.g. World Cafés, breakout sessions), in particular in ten small groups of up to 15 people.

Random selection

For the dialogue forums, a maximum of 40,000 residents from towns and municipalities near the event venues will be randomly selected and invited to participate. From the applications received, people will be selected who, as a group, represent as accurate a statistical cross-section of the population as possible according to the criteria of age, gender, education, region, place of residence and relevant sector/occupational status.

When selecting participants, care must be taken to ensure that the perspectives of people with disabilities are adequately taken into account. Furthermore, a sufficiently large proportion of population groups particularly affected by the pandemic (such as care workers) should take part in the dialogue forums.

The Enquete Commission is organising a separate participation format for children and young people.

Handover to the Bundestag

The results of the dialogue forums will be handed over to the German Bundestag in January 2027. Each dialogue forum will select ten delegates who will be invited to a handover event at the German Bundestag.

The organisation of the dialogue forums planned for autumn 2026, as well as the findings produced, will be incorporated into the Enquete Commission’s final report. The report is due to be available by the end of June 2027. It is intended to contain concrete recommendations for better prevention, combating future health crises and social resilience.

Call for tenders for the dialogue forums

The German Bundestag issued a call for tenders for the organisation of the dialogue forums in March 2026. Participation service providers have until 14 April 2026 to apply to organise the meetings.