(Digital) Democracy is a Human Right

Design it, Implement it, Experience It

6th December 2022 – European Economic and Social Committee, Atrium6, Rue Belliard 99-101, Brussels
9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Register here. Please keep in mind registration is compulsory for attendance.

The Programme:

9.00am – 9.15am Registration at the European Economic and Social Committee

9.15am – 10.30am Session 1– A rule of law based digital democracy

Introductory remarks:

Philip von Brockdorff, EESC rapporteur on Digital Sovereignty and Deputy Dean at Malta University

Virginia Fiume, Co-president of EUMANS 

Confirmed Speakers:

  • Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen, Postdoctoral Researcher in Politics and Public Administration at Roskilde School of Governance and co-author of the book European E-Democracy in Practice
  • Claudio Radaelli, Professor of Comparative Public Policy at School of Transnational Governance
  • Marco Cappato, Co-president of EUMANS 
  • Gaia Manco, administrative manager at the European Parliament, and project manager of together.eu, the citizen and civil society engagement project of the European Parliament
  • Gianluca Sgueo, Professor in Digital Democracy & Public Spaces at SciencesPo Paris
  • Ophélie Masson, Projects Coordinator at European Alternatives and co-coordinator of the coalition Citizens Take Over Europe

10.30am – 10.45am Coffee break

10.45am – 12.00pm Session 2 – Round table on digital democracy and identification of shared objectives

Moderator: Virginia Fiume, Co-president of EUMANS 

Confirmed Panellists: 

  • Dmytro Khutkyy, Visiting Senior Policy Analyst, European Citizen Action Service, Brussels, Belgium
  • Alexis Georgoulis, Member of the European Parliament, Shadow Rapporteur on EU Citizenship Report 2020: empowering citizens and protecting their rights
  • Ada-Charlotte Regelmann, Project manager at the Brussels office of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, and curator of the volume “The Crisis and Future of Democracy”
  • Martina Rubino, Advocacy Officer at European Citizens Rights Involvement and Trust foundation

12.00pm – 1.00pm LUNCH

1.00pm – 2.15pm Session 3-  P-Cube – Playing Public Policy – showcase and interactive session 

P-Cube is a prototype of an interactive role-play game developed to improve awareness about the importance of developing multi-disciplinary skills in the policy-making field. During the session Professor Claudio Radaelli (Professor of Comparative Public Policy at the European University Institute and member of the Steering Committee of Science for democracy) will introduce the theoretical framework of P-Cube.

2.15pm – 2.30pm  Coffee Break

2.30pm – 3.00pm Session 4 – Time for a permanent European Citizens Assembly: a collaborative Blueprint between self-organisation and institutionalisation

Representatives of the Working Groups “Constitutional Question” and “Self Organised” process will present the first draft of the Blueprint for a European Citizens Assembly prepared after a critical review of the citizens panels of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Introduced by Lorenzo Mineo, coordinator of EUMANS in Italy

Ulrike Liebert, Professor of Political Science University of Bremen and member of the coalition Citizens Take Over Europe

Ophélie Masson, Projects Coordinator at European Alternatives and co-coordinator of the coalition Citizens Take Over Europe

Michele Fiorillo, coordinator of the working group for a European Citizens Assembly of the coalition Citizens Take Over Europe

3.00pm – 5.30pm Session 5 – Transnational European Assembly on Health: End of Life Treatments

50 residents of Brussels will be part of a sample of a deliberative civic assembly aiming to develop a set of proposals on the topic of end-of-life decisions and palliative care. Register for this session here.

Register for the event, or individual sessions, through this link!

Concept

The event aims at putting together citizens, activists, academics and representatives of the local, national and EU institutions to define a path forward for the strengthening of political rights and protection of the rule of law and democratic values in the European Union. 

We will discuss, appraise, and make suggestions on prototypes of how to create protocols of interoperability among different digital platforms and the perspectives on the harmonisation of EU member states policies on regulation of participatory democracy, starting from the European Digital Identity Framework.


Following the innovative practice of cities like Barcelona and Milan on digital participation with the embryonic experiment launched inter-institutionally through the Conference on the Future of Europe and its digital platform, we will co-design a proposal for an European digitally enabled democratic ecosystem and its integration with new forms of deliberative democracy such as Sortition Based Citizens Assemblies.

Organisers

This event is organised by Science for Democracy. Science for Democracy is a platform that connects academics, policy makers and civil society organisations for the promotion of the “Right to Science”.

EUMANS,  a pan-European Movement of popular and nonviolent initiatives. EUMANS promotes the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the affirmation of the rule of law and democracy, the protection, conversation and restoration of the ecosystem and sustainable development as well as the promotion of science-based debates and institutional decisions.

The event is in partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

The event is part of the Consumer Empowerment Project, funded by Euroconsumers and Google, which aims to improve the digital ecosystem for consumers and help consumers understand their rights so that they can make better informed decisions.

The event will showcase the P-Cube project, which aims to help people learn how decisions are taken in the public sphere by covering the individual elements of the policy-making process, placing special emphasis on non-incremental policy change.

Further in collaboration with Citizens Take Over Europe, a civil society organisation that emerged in the spring 2020 amidst the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Citizens Take over Europe is a group of civil society organisations, citizens and residents from across Europe, joined in a common effort to promote a forward-looking and citizens-centred European democracy.

Register here. Please keep in mind registration is compulsory for attendance.