Provisional Programme - 20th May 2008

Centre Albert Borschette - Salle 0A
Rue Froissart 36
B1049 Brussels

9h15 – 10h00	Registration
10h00 – 10h15	Welcome address
10h15 – 10h30	eParticipation and eGovernance, David Broster, Head of Unit, DG INFSO-H2
10h30 – 10h50	The eParticipation Preparatory Action and the 2008 Work Programme, Thanassis Chrissafis, DG INFSO-H2
10h50 – 11h10	Guidelines for applicants and evaluation criteria, Willy VAN PUYMBROECK, Head of Unit, DG INFSO-H5
11h10 – 11h30	Question and Answer Session
11h30 – 11h45	Coffee Break
11h45 – 12h15	Presentation of the current projects, Anna TRIANTAFILLOU, Coordinator of MOMENTUM, eParticipation Support Action project
12h15 – 12h45	Presentation of potential proposals (3min each)
12h45 – 13h00	Final round of questions & clarifications
13h00 – 14h30	Networking and bilateral meetings with Commission staff
14h30	End of meeting

For more information, go to:  http://ec.europa.eu/eparticipation

---

The objectives of the eParticipation Preparatory Action are to demonstrate how using modern ICT tools and applications can make it easier for people to participate in decision-making and can contribute to better legislation. The action was initiated by the European Parliament and launched in 2006. It supports pilot projects in real-life environments that demonstrate the use of Information and Communication Technologies to bolster citizens’ participation in democratic decision-making.

The Preparatory Action lasts for three years (2006-2008). Through a set of trials in real environments, the action promotes the use of ICTs in the legislative and decision-making processes at local, regional, national and EU level. . The trial projects are using new digital technologies to make legislative texts clearer and to help citizens have easier access to information about new ideas for legislation and to give them the tools to express their opinions.

So far, 14 projects have been funded. In the first year six trial projects were selected and in 2007 a further seven trial projects as well as a support action to coordinate and promote the eParticipation projects were chosen. The European Parliament, national parliaments and local and regional authorities are actively involved. State-of-the-art ICT tools are being tested to facilitate the writing of legal texts, including translation into different languages, and the drafting of amendments as well as making the texts easier for non-specialists to find and understand. New digital technologies are also being used to give citizens easier access to information and the more opportunity to try to influence decisions that affect their lives.

To be announced soon…

The adoption of the Work Programme for 2008 and the launch of a new call for proposals are scheduled for April. More information on this will be announced shortly. An Information Day will be organised to give interested applicants further information. It is scheduled to be held in Brussels on 20th May 2008, pending formal adoption of the work programme, at the Centre Albert Borschette.

More information soon.

2007

In 2007, the preparatory action was granted a budget of €5 million. Eight projects were selected for funding and started on 1st January 2008:

CitizenScape 'eParticipation in Legislation Implementation': helping citizens to debate and engage with the implementation of EU environmental legislation at a local level with the use of state-of-the-art Web 2.0 social networking tools.

Read more. http://www.citizenscape.org/

 

Demos@Work 'European-wide discussion between elected representatives and civil society': facilitating European-wide discussions between elected representatives and civil society on emerging policy issues in the field of public health, particularly the harmful effects of smoking. Read more. http://www.demosatwork.org/project.htm

 

FEED 'Federated eParticipation Systems for Cross-Societal Deliberation on Environmental and Energy Issues': provides users with seamless access to existing federated content that matches their information search requirements, with a focus on Environmental and Energy issues. Read more. http://www.feed-project.eu

 

Ideal-EU 'Integrating the Drivers of e-Participation at Regional Level in Europe': raising awareness on the latest evidence on climate change, and appropriate policy responses, together with assessments of the financial impact and costs of inaction. Read more. http://www.ideal-eu.net

 

VEP 'The Virtual European Parliament': creates a virtual European Parliament in which young citizens can participate via mobiles and web2.0 technologies and tools. Read more http://www.virtualep.eu/

 

VOICE 'Giving European People a voice in EU-legislation': enhancing the participation of citizens from regions in Germany and Spain in EU decision-making in the area of consumer protection. Read more. http://www.give-your-voice.eu/

 

eCommittee: provides citizens with the opportunity to follow issues in the European Parliament's Environment Committee and to interact with MEPs. The focus will be on climate change. Read more. http://www.ourclimate.eu/ourclimate/ecp.aspx

 

Momentum: a support action to help monitor, coordinate and promote the EU eParticipation initiative. Read more. http://www.smartup.gr/momentum/

See also:

                        Work Programme 2007

2006

The budget available in 2006 was €2 million, and six projects were selected for funding:

DALOS 'Drafting legislation with ontology-base support': the project aims to provide law-makers and European citizens with linguistic and knowledge management tools to assist in accessing and retrieving as well as drafting legal texts.

Read more.

SEAL 'Smart Environment for Assisting the drafting and debating of Legislation': developing an integrated working environment to help those involved in drafting legal texts. The project provides the tools to make it easier to create legal drafts and connections from and to existing legal sources.Read more.

LEGESE 'Easing participation in legislative processes': this project provides easier access to, and understanding of, EU legislation and processes.

Read more.

LEX-IS 'Enabling participation of youth in the public debate of legislation among Parliaments, citizens and businesses in the European Union': enhancing public participation in the preparatory stages (legislation formation and debate), specifically targeting the participation of younger citizens.

Read more.

LEXIPATION 'An advanced ICT tool for enhancing Citizen's participation in the legislative process': this project provides tools to aid interaction between members of parliaments and citizens or groups of citizens at the regional level in four member states (Germany, Greece, Italy, and UK)Read more.

TID+ 'Enabling citizens' initiative to eParticipation': based on an Estonian experience (Today I Decide) which enables citizens to propose, discuss and express views on new legislation initiatives, while allowing decision-makers to deliver a response to them, this project will adapt and make available this service in a cross-border environment. Read more.

See also:

Work programme 2006
 

---

The eParticipation Info Day is provisionally scheduled for 20 May 2008, following the publication of the 2008 Work Programme, which is expected to be adopted by the end of April. Further information will be available on http://ec.europa.eu/eparticipation.

Renewed eGovernment website

The new eGovernment website is now online at http://ec.europa.eu/egovernment. Many updated pages offer you interesting reading material and an insight to the activities undertaken and supported by the European Commission in this field. Please let us know what you think by contacting the eGovernment Communication Team and by frequently visiting the website.

 

 

eGovernment for the people

Today, democracy and democratic processes in Europe are facing a number of challenges. Many citizens are losing interest and confidence in the way their countries are being governed. eParticipation provides new tools to reconnect citizens with governments and to increase their involvement in the decision-making which affects their lives.

In many European countries, where voting is not mandatory, turnouts at national and European elections are falling. There are numerous reasons for this. Perhaps voters feel there is little difference between the political choices available to them, or perhaps they feel their vote will not “make a difference”. More widely, lack of confidence in public servants, government and other institutions, increasing expectations of public services which citizens feel are not being met, and insufficient transparency in public institutions, are just some of the reasons fuelling disaffection amongst the public.

Governments are working with citizens to identify and test ways of giving them more of a stake in the policy-shaping process, such as through public consultations on new legislation. ICTs provide a range of routes to foster communication between politicians and government bodies on the one side, and citizens on the other. Internet, mobile phones and interactive television can be used to channel information to citizens and canvass their views informally, and even to conduct formal votes. Increasing public participation benefits democracy. It is also good for the cohesion of European society because participation promotes a sense of ownership of the political process, making implementation easier.

Democratic quests

In recent years, the EU and its Member States have mounted a concerted effort to find workable mechanisms and solutions to enhance and boost eParticipation. Under the Fifth and Sixth Framework Programmes for Research (FP5 and FP6), which ran from 1998 to 2006, the Commission funded around 20 ICT research projects in this area.

At the end of 2005, the European Parliament asked the Commission to launch an eParticipation Preparatory Action, which promotes the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies in legislative and decision-making processes within parliamentary and government environments. In June 2006, the Council of Ministers, when agreeing the i2010 eGovernment action plan, recognised “the growing interest in eParticipation and the impact of ICT on activities in the political sphere”. It is expected that eParticipation activities will be fully integrated into the ICT Policy Support Programme in coming years.

A call for proposals published in July 2006 received 36 eligible proposals of which six were selected. They cover a number of important areas, such as the participation of the general public and youth in the legislative process, the multilingual drafting of European legislation, and ‘smart’ legislative environments.
In 2007, the Commission published a second call for proposals with a €5 million budget, in which it sought to support trial projects (expected to start in 2008) which apply ICT tools to real-life legislative and decision-making processes. Projects could be ‘citizen-driven’, providing new methods for individual citizens and groups to initiate and contribute to policy proposals, or ‘decision-maker driven’, in which policy-makers open up their activity to greater outside scrutiny and offer opportunities to citizens to contribute.