Call for proposals for eParticipation projects 2008

On May 30^th the European Commission released the Draft Work Programme 2008 – ePARTICIPATION in legislative and decision-making processes. The call for proposals will start in early June and end on August 29^th (to be confirmed) and will distribute a total budget of 5 million €. The detailed timetable for the call can be found on the bottom of this page.

The call targets the third democratic principle of the European Union formulated in the Lisbon Treaty: Participatory democracy – new forms of interaction between citizens and the European institutions. The eParticipation Initiative aims to fight the perceived democratic deficit, to reconnect citizens with politics and policy-making and to reduce the complexity of decision-making and legislation processes. The call itself is part of the eParticipation Preparatory Action launched in 2006.

The two main objectives for 2008 are to advance eParticipation by exploring the future course of eParticipation through applying new tools and applications to the EU decision-making processes and to improve inter-parliamentary networking and cooperation. The first goal is subdivided into a number of specific issues to be addressed by potential proposals. The different issues to be addressed include both technological political challenges. These subdivisions are:

• Transparency in tracking legislation and decision-making processes
• Visualisation of impacts of legislation
• Policy developments related to the Internet and governance
• Petitions
• Inclusive social networking

The second main objective focuses on the relationships and communication between member state parliaments. Proposals in this field should suggest innovative ways to improve this communication between member state parliaments with special focus on how to improve citizens’ involvement, public debate and participation on EU affairs when they are debated in national parliaments.

To achieve the first main objective trail projects will be funded. For the second objective a support action will be established.

Detailed information and all documents concerning this call for proposals can be found on the European Information Societies website.

Tags: 2008, call for proposals, eParticipation, euorpean commission