01 Jun European and National e-Participation Tools Introduced to 11 Countries
01 Jun, 2015
The e-Participation Day on May 7, 2017, was celebrated by hundreds of European citizens in 11 countries. It was an initiative by the e-UROPa project that aims to bring EU closer to its citizens through the use of online – e-Participation – tools.
The e-Participation Day was followed by the launch of online competition “My e-Participation story” that invites citizens to share their personal experience with online participation tools. Winners will have a chance to come to Brussels to present their stories to policy-makers at the multi-stakeholder conference “e-Participation from a Citizens Perspective”.
On May 7, citizens were invited to join various workshops, forums, and presentations highlighting the importance and many possibilities to get involved in the policy making through e-Participation tools available in national languages. Association “Langas į ateitį” in Lithuania engaged more than 50 senior citizens in presentations of European e-Participation tools. Participants were invited to test the tools in a practical workshop afterwards.
International Aid Network in Serbia targeted high school students and involved over 250 participants across four towns. Librarians, university students, journalists and IT professionals came to the University Library in Belgrade to hear a lecture on e-Participation and possibilities for active citizenship using online tools in Serbia.
In Spain project partner El Teb ran a a half day conference and a workshop and gathered 120 participants to hear about governmental and citizen initiatives. Three Catalan tools of e-Participation were also introduced to the audience.
The e-Participation day in Latvia was organized by LIKTA in cooperation with Latvian Library network (represented by Culture Information systems centre) and e-Participation portal www.manabalss.lv. Different activities for youth, seniors and farmers were organized in libraries all across Latvia. Librarians presented e-Participation possibilities in their libraries and municipalities as well as introduced the audience to national portals www.manabalss.lv and www.mansprezidents.lv.
Stiftung Digitale Chancen organised an event at ProSeniore Residence in Berlin for interested senior citizens and adults about the e-Participation tools. Twelve tablets were provided and co-sponsored by E-Plus Group so that participants could experiment with the tools right there and then. The e-Participation workshops are planned again in the end of June in Berlin where more than 100 senior citizens, multipliers and stakeholders are expected to come. Another 13 handovers are planned this year which will enable Stiftung Digitale Chancen to reach out to 350 senior citizens in 2015.
This is just a glimpse into local activities that took place in May. More updates and photos of local events can be found on the project website: euparticipation.org
