The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) has been one year in practice, but neither EU politicians nor civil society organisations are happy with the instrument. Originally praised as the first tool of transnational direct democracy, “ECI Day” in Brussels on 9 April 2013 showed that the requirements of the ECI must change to be an influential
UK Prime Minister David Cameron today kicked off his country’s year-long presidency of the Group of Eight Industrialised Nations by writing a letter to his counterparts. The good news for the open government movement is that it’s clear that his administration intends to place transparency high-up the agenda. Here are some key extracts: At the
During a recent visit to Bulgaria, the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes commented on the digital development in Bulgaria – both the good and the bad. The conference she attended, Digital Agenda for Europe: Reality or still a Challenge,- outlined quite well the duality of the situation one of the EU’s newest
Last week we looked at open data policies in the EU. The Open agenda however goes beyond open data; it also includes transparency and civic participation. This week, we take a look at the mechanisms that the EU has in place to encourage transparency and civic participation. TRANSPARENCY The European Commission Transparency Portal is
The European Union’s institutions have been criticised from the early days for the “democratic deficit”, namely the lack of those mechanisms that give legitimacy to national governments. Increasingly though, the debate is shifting towards a different and yet related criticism – its lack of transparency and openness. This is especially the case for its executive