‘Forging change’? Collaboration between policy makers, academics, and civil society stakeholders at the ECI Day 2016

Authors

  • Lucy Hatton University of Warwick
  • Lucy Hatton Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v4i2.160

Keywords:

collaboration, political participation, European Union, civil society, academia, political institutions

Abstract

The ‘ECI Day 2016: Forging Change’ conference brought together policy makers, academics and civil society representatives to discuss how to maximise the effectiveness of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), the EU’s only mechanism of participatory democracy, within its existing rules. Since 2012 these annual conferences have brought together a significant number of interested parties to evaluate the performance of the ECI and look to its future. Through a series of workshops and plenary sessions during ECI Day 2016, participants from diverse backgrounds interacted to produce a number of conclusions that will hopefully be used to inform the future development of the ECI tool. This review focuses on how the representatives of the EU’s institutions, academics and civil society representatives collaborated to create a productive environment and reach a clear conclusion to the proceedings. This was a strength of the conference that will hopefully contribute to ‘forging change’ for the ECI, though resistance to reform from one key stakeholder remains an obstacle.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Lucy Hatton, University of Warwick

Early Career Fellow at Institute of Advanced Study

References

EESC (2016), ECI DAY 2016: Forging Change Report on the ECI’s Greatest Successes and Disappointments, Brussels, http://www.eesc.europa.eu/resources/docs/eci-day-2016-report.pdf, accessed 20 April 2017

European Union (2007), ‘Treaty of Lisbon Amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community’, Official Journal of the European Union, 50 (C 306): 1–230

European Union (2011), ‘Regulation (EU) No 211/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 on the Citizens’ Initiative’, Official Journal of the European Union, L 65

Kant, Immanuel (2007), Critique of Pure Reason, Weigelt, Marcus (ed.), London: Penguin Classics

More than education - Shaping active and responsible citizens (2016), ‘European Citizens’ Initiative on Civic Education in Europe’, http://morethaneducation.eu.webhosting126.transurl.nl/european-citizens-initiative-on-civic-education-in-europe/#pgc-103-2-0, accessed 30 June 2016

The ECI Campaign (2016), ‘ECI’S “existential Crisis” at ECI Day 2016: Commission’s Non-Action Frustrates Stakeholders’, http://www.citizens-initiative.eu/ecis-existential-crisis-eci-day-2016-commissions-non-action-frustrates-stakeholders/, accessed 20 May 2016

Photo of conference

Downloads

Published

2017-04-30

Issue

Section

Collaboration