38 | 28, pp. 37-53 | | doxa.comunicación

January-June of 2019

The value of new technologies in participatory democracy. The case of the European Citizens’ Initiative

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

1. Introduction

Democratic participation still is the way forward for societies that seek permanent peace through the exercise of active citizenship. Since 2012, the European Citizens’ Initiative instrument has emerged in the process of drafting legislative acts of the European Union.

European citizenship provides European citizens important rights and the possibility of democratic participation and active involvement in EU decision-making process. One of the facets of this citizenship is to enable citizens to become involved in decision-making through participation in the exercise of legislative initiative. It happens at national level, as in Portugal and Spain, and at European Union. It is a very promising strand. The results are scarce, believed to the youth of the instrument, but it is an important path. It will, we believe, become a way to empower citizens to influence the political agenda.

Increasingly, the EU seeks to raise awareness of citizenship rights, by fostering the civic involvement of young people, where increased use of technology can lead to greater adherence.

Abstract:

Democratic participation still is the way forward for societies that seek permanent peace through the exercise of active citizenship. Since 2012, the European Citizens’ Initiative instrument has emerged in the process of drafting legislative acts of the European Union. One of the facets of this citizenship is to enable citizens to become involved in decision-making through participation in the exercise of legislative initiative. The Lisbon Treaty introduced the right to the ECI. The aim is to actively involve citizens in the European decision-making, giving them an indirect form of legislative initiative. Information technologies (IT) are the essence of up-to-date organizations in general, and changes in this field are occurring at an uncontrollable pace, interrupting traditional models and forcing organizations to implement new models, new ways of working and communicating. In this context, the European Commission, not ignoring the relevance and transformations inherent in the use of IT, has included its use in several areas, namely in the European Citizens’ Initiative. In this research is analysed how much a platform available in the European Citizens’ Initiative context is used in petitions and the evolution of this same use until the completion of the review in 2018.

Keywords:

European Citizens Initiative; legislation; European Union, Infor-mation Technology, digital participation.

Resumen:

La participación democrática sigue siendo el camino a seguir para las sociedades que buscan la paz permanente a través del ejercicio de una ciudadanía activa. Desde 2012, el instrumento de la Inicia-tiva Ciudadana Europea ha surgido en el proceso de redacción de los actos legislativos de la Unión Europea. Una de las facetas de esta ciudadanía es permitir que los ciudadanos se involucren en la toma de decisiones a través de la participación en el ejercicio de la inicia-tiva legislativa. El derecho a la ECI fue introducido por el Tratado de Lisboa. El objetivo es involucrar activamente a los ciudadanos en la toma de decisiones europea, dándoles una forma indirecta de iniciativa legislativa. Las tecnologías de la información (TI) son la esencia de las organizaciones actualizadas en general, y los cambios en este campo se están produciendo a un ritmo incontrolable, inte-rrumpiendo los modelos tradicionales y obligando a las organiza-ciones a implementar nuevos modelos, nuevas formas de trabajar y comunicarse. En este contexto, la Comisión Europea, sin ignorar la relevancia y las transformaciones inherentes al uso de TI, ha inclui-do su uso en áreas diversas.

Palabras clave:

Iniciativa legislativa europea; legislación; Unión Europea, Tecnolo-gías de la Información, participación digital.

Received: 18/11/2018 - Accepted: 17/05/2019

Recibido: 18/11/2018 - Aceptado: 17/05/2019