Many citizens consider that the EU is something that happens in Brussels and does not concern them. In fact, EU policies impact on all aspects of our daily lives and the European institutions have created a number of online tools – Your voice in Europe, Petitions Web Portal – that every European citizen can use to take part in developing these policies and benefiting from their rights. However, to what extent do citizens really use these tools in practice? Are they aware of their existence and motivated to take action? Do these tools enhance citizens’ understanding how to participate? These are some of the questions the Enabling Civil e-Participation in Europe conference will try to answer by looking at examples of projects at national and EU levels aimed at digital empowerment of citizens.
The conference will take place on Tuesday, 8th of December, between 13:00 and 17:00h in the European Parliament, kindly hosted by György Schöpflin MEP (EPP, Hungary) and Marju Lauristin MEP (S&D, Estonia).
During the conference you will hear from the experience of some of the most prominent names in the field of digital inclusion and e-participation – György Schöpflin, MEP and Rapporteur on ECI and Marju Lauristin, Professor of Social Communication including on e-participation, Gerald Häfner, former Rapporteur on the ECI in the EP, Founder and Board Member of Democracy International, Assya Kavrakova, Director of ECAS, which together with Democracy International leads the ECI Support Centre. Serge Novaretti from DG CNECT of the European Commission will tell us about the institutional perspective on e-participation and some news on the upcoming eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 in the light of the ongoing public consultation. NGO representatives will present their innovative ideas and projects’ results on crowd-sourcing platforms for national and EU legislation amendments. The conference participants will also learn more about the stance of persons with disabilities and their needs in order to be as digitally included as any other societal group from Alejandro Moledo of the European Disability Forum, a network representing the interests of 80 million Europeans with disabilities.
We are looking forward to meeting you at the conference and hearing your experience. Please, register here before 30th of November. For more information, check the project website and the conference programme.
The conference is organised in the framework of the project “Enabling European e-Participation (E-UROPa)”, implemented in 11 European countries. Its objective is to raise citizens’ awareness about the existence of these online tools and get them engaged in the policy process.
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