European Citizens' Consultation 2009
The European Citizens' Consultation 2009 (ECC09)
http://www.european-citizens-consultation.org.uk/
The European Citizens' Consultation 2009 was a project which aimed to inject citizen voices directly into the European policy making process. In the run-up to the 2009 Euro-elections, the European Citizens' Consultations 2009 (ECC09) gave citizens the opportunity to join the debate over how to respond to the current economic and financial crisis by providing a platform for a dialogue on the future of Europe.
About the ECC09 project
There were three key stages to the project.
Stage one
The first stage was an online debate in each Member State which provided a platform for all citizens to debate their ideas on the social and economic future of Europe with MEPs, pressure groups and NGOs. The online debate allowed participants to put forward specific policy proposals which were then voted for by other users. This stage of the consultation was launched on 03 December 2008 and ran for the duration of the project.
Stage two
The second stage of the project was the National Consultation, which in the UK, took place in London on 21st and 22nd March 2009. This event brought together 100 randomly selected citizens to deliberate on the economic and social future of Europe. On the second day, MEPs from each party debated the recommendations made by citizens.
Over the two days participants moved from idea generation to a series of policy recommendations. The event featured input and scrutiny from a number of European experts to ensure that a fully informed set of recommendations was produced.
Stage three
The third stage of the project was a European Citizen Summit in Brussels where representatives from each of the national consultations came together to produce the final set of recommendations which were then handed over to policy makers at the event.
The project was part funded by the European Commission with the remainder made up by charitable trusts in the Member States.
For information regarding the results of Consultation please click here
Tags: public_participation, participation, empowerment, engagement, consultation.
