I have never seen important policy being decided by what the populace thinks. Like ever. If anything people have to protest loudly and organise to raise hell and even then it will silently be swept aside a month or two later.
Remember the huge anti-nazi demonstrations across the republic that even olaf scholz appeared at? Whatever happened because of that? Or fridays for future? The only change there has been that it is trendy to be ecofriendly now and so corporations try to put on a facade to sell their stuff but we are not going to meet our "goals" and meanwhile china is about to meet the climate goals they have set for 2030. The last time the population was consulted was to get the opinion on daylight savings and even then the project was scrapped.
Feel free to change my mind but it's going to be tough.
Edit: this actually got me going, the fact that it has "some sway" during the consultation phase shows how bankrupt the whole system really is, because the industrialists and lobbyists get a seat at the table but the best we can hope for is to leave some comments on the internet that might be taken into consideration?
Hmmm while I get your point, I was only saying that I have seen cases where the comments of proposals were seen by the commission, discussed further and then actioned upon. The most recent example that comes to my mind was the delay of the cybersecurity requirements within the radio equipment directive.
I did not say that public action is adequately taken into account and I am not privvy to what the direct intentions or submissions (on a legislative level) are for Fridays for Future etc.
I would however give credit where due to the EU for trying to actually force companies selling here to act in an eco friendly manner (e.g USB-C amendments, charger requirements, eco design regulation, carbon based price schemes). More is needed, but it's better than many other democracies