Photo: Sophia Russack, CEPS
The Erasmus+’s Towards a Citizens’ Union project meeting was held in Athens on 14-15th of June gathering representatives of think-tanks from across the European Union.
The challenges of the participatory democracy in the EU have been discussed bringing unique insights from 16 member states. WiseEuropa’s Wojciech Białożyt and Arkadiusz Legieć have presented the thematic paper that discussed in a broad perspective the impact of digital technologies on democracy, decision making and relations between governments and citizens. The process of how the introduction of technologies into government has been changing over time and a perspective for citizens gaining a true influence and co-ownership of decision making processes have also been brought up in the presentation. The Towards a Citizens’ Union (2CU) project is led by CEPS (https://www.ceps.eu/) and gathers 21 think tanks and member organizations of The European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN). Within the 2CU the partners intend to strengthen their mutual cooperation in EPIN, advance a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities to enhance participatory and representative democracy and accountability in the EU and contribute to the quest for a stronger citizens’ union. http://www.epin.org/ Towards a Citizens’ Union project is being realized within the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Jean Monnet 2017 Programme.
