Programme

8.30 – 9.00  Registration and welcome coffee

9.00 – 9.15  Opening speech by Georges Dassis, President of the European Economic and Social Committee

9.15 – 10.30 Opening session | 60 years of European Citizenship: how has the role of citizen participation evolved?

Moderator: Irini Pari, President of the EESC's ECI ad hoc Group

Keynote speaker: Alberto Alemanno, academic, citizen lobbyist, civic entrepreneur

  • Soraya Post, member of the European Parliament
  • Markku Markkula, President of the European Committee of the Regions
  • Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission

10.30 – 11.00  Coffee break

11.00 – 13.00  Participatory panels

THEME 1: ECI success stories

The ECI is often criticised for having little impact on EU policy-making. Indeed, no direct legislative proposal was put forward following the three successful ECIs. Nevertheless many positive changes have taken place and some ECI ideas have actually found their way into European legislation. There were also a number of technical updates and simplifications that should be welcomed. This panel seeks to highlight the positive changes in EU policies stemming from or associated with the ECIs.

Moderator: Bruno Kaufmann, world democracy supporter and developer, Editor-in-Chief people2power.info

  • Olga Kurpisz and Tomas Soria Esteban, members of the ECI Team, Unit for "Work programme and stakeholder consultation", Secretariat-General of the European Commission
  • Pablo Sánchez Centellas, representative of the ECI Right2Water
  • Michel Sponar, Deputy Head of Unit "Marine Environment & Water Industry", European Commission Directorate-General for Environment
  • Michel Cermak, representative of the Stop TTIP campaign
  • Dr James Organ, Assistant professor at the University of Liverpool's Law School
  • Heike Aghte, organiser from the ECI "30 km/h – making streets liveable!", The ECI Campaign

With contributions from the representatives of the ongoing ECIs:

  • Tiziano Cattaneo, ECI People4Soil
  • David Schwarz, ECI Ban Glyphosate
  • Glyn Hughes, ECI European Free Movement Instrument
  • Frank de Boer, ECI Minority SafePack

THEME 2: Citizen Participation – ECI and beyond

In this participatory workshop we will both discover and collectively develop new forms of citizen participation that complement the ECI. It could address topics such as improving EU policy consultations, using local level engagement methods to address EU issues, EU civic education, online crowdsourcing, transnational activism and civic innovation. Our ultimate goal will be to combine these approaches to design an EU citizen participation event that could take place in cities throughout the EU.

Moderator: Janice Thomson, Public Engagement Consultant

  • Elisa Lironi, Digital Democracy Manager at the European Citizen Action Service, ECI Support Centre
  • Benjamin Aaron Snow, Civocracy
  • Manuel Pleguezuelo Alonso, Director-General responsible for Public Participation, the European Union and External Affairs of the Regional Government of Murcia (Spain); Associate Professor of International Public Law and International Relations at the Faculty of Law of the University of Murcia; member of the European Committee of the Regions
  • Joanna Pańkowska, ECI More than Education
  • Dr Raphaël Kies, Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education, University of Luxembourg

13.00 – 14.30  Lunch offered by the EESC and networking opportunity

14.30 – 16.15  Closing panel | 5 years of the ECI: what has changed in policy-making and in citizen participation?                     

Moderator: Carsten Berg, Director of The ECI Campaign, Association for the ECI

  • György Schöpflin, Member of the European Parliament
  • Jean-Eric Paquet, Deputy Secretary-General in charge of Policy Co-ordination, Data Protection and the Mediation Service, European Commission
  • Kai Härmand, Deputy Secretary-General of the Estonian Ministry of Justice representing the Council Presidency (July-December 2017)
  • María Peñarrubia Bañón, Assistant Professor of EU law and a PhD candidate at the CEU San Pablo University at Madrid; town counsellor for Youth and Sports
  • Dr Maximilian Conrad, Associate Professor at the University of Iceland

____________________

Language arrangement: you can speak and listen in English and French. The workshop on citizens' participation will be held in English only.

During the breaks, colleagues from DG DIGIT, who have developed a new version of Online Collection Software, as well as colleagues from the secretariat-general's ECI team will be available at the ECI CLINIC stand to demonstrate the latest developments and to answer any questions from participants.

All ongoing ECIs and ECI DAY partners will also run stands where they will be presenting their ECI-related activities and campaigns.

____________________

18.00 – 20.00 ECI DAY evening reception: launch of the digital version of the European Passport to Active Citizenship

Welcome speech by Gonçalo Lobo Xavier, Vice-President of the European Economic and Social Committee in charge of communication

Downloads

ECI DAY 2017 programme