On 28 October from 3 to 5 PM, the Action Cluster Integrated Planning Policy and Regulation and the Cluster Citizens focus of the Smart Cities Marketplace (Democratic Innovations Initiative) will hold a virtual workshop to support the EuComMeet project’s consortium in selecting the 10 pilot cities that will be hosting an online, multilingual deliberative and participatory process, experimenting innovative typologies of moderation. Citizens will be given a chance to make their voice heard on crucial topics related to social and economic inequalities, environment and climate change.
The EuComMeet project, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme last March 2020, has the objective to develop innovative spaces for participatory deliberation and to explore and test under which conditions deliberation and participation can help to reduce polarisation, strengthen European identity, encourage greater inclusion and reduce the representation gap between politicians and citizens.
The workshop is aimed at presenting the objectives and methodologies of the project to city administrations’ representatives interested in piloting a deliberative and participatory process. The 10 selected cities will be fully assisted by the project’s team in engaging with citizens, urban planners and local stakeholders to address crucial and polarising issues related to the environment and to social and economic inequality for improving their local policies according to their priorities (topics such as “gender equality in the workforce”, “job digitalisation”, “the working poor”, “plastic pollution”, “sustainable food consumption”, “sustainable mobility”).
The pilot phase will allow the selected cities to test and co-design a deliberative process adapted to their own needs and interests. It will also be an opportunity for citizens and administrators to discuss topical and controversial issues for their own city, with the support of innovative technological tools developed by the project, and it will allow participating cities to compare and share their experiences and knowledge with other cities across Europe. The final objective is to provide cities and local authorities with a toolkit that could be used in different contexts in the future.
In order to participate in the application and selection process that will be finalised next spring, cities must be located in one of the following five EU countries France, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Poland and have a population of > 500.000 inhabitants (including metropolitan areas).
Further information on the EuComMeet project is available here.
If you are interested to be in contact with the EuComMeet Experts team and receive more details on how to get engaged and participate in the selection, you are kindly invited to fill up the workshop subscription form at the following link or write an e-mail to info@tour4eu.eu