Tech developments offer various tools that can be used to shape public positions. Today we can submit ideas and vote on proposals using multilingual online platforms for participatory budgeting. State institutions use gamification and serious games to enhance public participation, and make it more informative and inclusive. Governments use social media to gain public opinion, distribute information, and foster participation in planning initiatives.
While innovative tools aim to promote inclusivity, it is crucial to examine who they actually reach and ensure that the engagement process embraces a wide array of perspectives and experiences. The importance of reaching a diverse and representative range of stakeholders in civil society participation cannot be overstated.
With this new report ECNL seeks to support leveraging the full potential of various participation tools in the European Union and its Member States. The paper has a specific focus on online platforms and gamification, presenting their key characteristics, benefits and challenges, and how EU institutions may use them at the national and local level. It also highlights some other examples that can promote citizen participation, including facilitation tools, university programmes and living labs, social media platforms and hybrid forms of participation.
We propose recommendations for EU bodies, state institutions, CSOs, companies and academia to strengthen meaningful participation in decision-making at the EU and national level.
The research was prepared within the framework of the ParticipatiON Project, funded by the European Union. Aligned with Article 10(3) of the Treaty on European Union, the ParticipatiON project seeks to empower people and civil society organisations to actively participate in policy processes and identify new opportunities and models that can be applied in EU level policy processes as well as on the national level.
