Telecentre danmark have encouraged all telecentres to participate in the project e-UROPA f
or active European citizenship. European e-Participation possibilities based on online tools, as how to participate in the policies, policy-making, how to contact your MEP in Brussels as well as how to lodge compliant about obstacles in EU countries, petitions etc. The telecentres have been urged to incorporate the online tools in their daily tuition as part of the curriculum. Brochures and materials have been distributed to the ICT Telecentres.
The European e-Participation day
The event was organized at Husum Activity Centre – a major Copenhagen municipal activity center for seniors. The centre is also the home for an ICT Telecentre with more than 75 senior students weekly. Approx. 30 people participated in the introduction to the online tools held in the conference room. We also had a live streaming from the TEB Europe conference in Barcelona, taking place at the same time and the two groups had the opportunity to say hello on Skype. 20 people participated in the following workshop where all the tools were tested.
The e-Participation day clearly showed how most people see the European Parliament’s legislation, the policy as something far away. In the workshop people got involved and engaged when they got their hands on the tools. The big question is: how to find a way to motivate citizens to use the online tools as part of their regular routine?
We conducted further in depth interviews with some of the participants as well as non-participants (users of the activity centre) in order to find out, why some people choose to participate and others choose not to participate in the European debate. These findings will be used in the autumn term and ICTs workshops.
Some statements: “The parliament in Brussels have no interest”, “It is impossible to understand the grouping of members”, “In what topics are the members involved in?”, “Why doesn’t the press shown more interest in the EU daily issues?”
National TV program about the e-UROPA project
In connection with the European e-Participation day, Telecentre danmark collaborated with the Danish National TV station “dk4” in making a 30 minutes long talk show, about the e-UROPA project and why this is necessary, with Rina Ronja Kari, MEP, GUE/NGL, Brussels and Gitte E. Olsen, director of Telecentre danmark.
The TV program was filmed at the Danish Parliament with EU expert and journalist Paul Smith as a host. The program “EU – Only a click away” is being shown on national TV station dk4 in May and with several repeats, at different times, over the next month. The TV rating estimates that, all in all, approx. 1.2 million Danish people will have access to the program.
The program can be seen on our website http://tc-danmark.dk (in Danish only) and on youtube: http://youtu.be/_Kr2gJ7QWhI
The competition is on its way
Invitation to all users at the ICT centres have been sent out, asking those who have used the tools to share their experience, tell their story and to enter the competition directly using the link: https://tceurope.wufoo.com/forms/konkurrence-my-eparticipation-fortalling/
e-UROPA brochure
e-UROPA brochure with a separate leaflet of all the Danish Members of the EU parliament have been distributed to all ICT centres. The leaflet can be obtained at http://tc-danmark.dk/e-uropa.html
Watch a video about participants’ feedback on EU tools:
e-uropa 