FEED
Federated eParticipation Systems for Cross-Societal Deliberation on Environmental and Energy Issues

Electronic participation (e-participation) has hitherto been almost uncritically promoted and emphasized as having great potential of transforming relations between administration and the public, and expected to help reform the classical model of democratic involvement. In this context, Arnstein4 claims that the involvement of the public in decision-making represents a distribution of power from the authority to the citizens.

As stated in recent e-Government related publications, instead of dialogical deliberation, political communication has tended to be monological, professionally produced and released for public consumption as a marketing exercise. For most citizens, political debate has come to be perceived as something to watch – or to switch off.

• e-information: The government websites offer information on policies and programmes, budgets, laws and regulations, and other briefs of key public interest. Tools for dissemination of information exist for timely access and use of public information, including web forums, e-mail lists, newsgroups and chat rooms.
• e-consultation: The government website explains e-consultation mechanisms and tools. It offers a choice of public policy topics on line for discussion with real time and archived access to audios and videos of public meetings. The government encourages citizens to participate in discussions.
• e-decision making: The government indicates that it will take citizen input into account in decision making and provides actual feedback on the outcome of specific issues.

Driven by a desire to address citizen disengagement that consequently leads to a perceived and ever growing democratic deficit and at the same time to improve the quality and legitimacy of decisions, European countries are striving to increase public participation. Such a need is also identified in the European Commission “i2010 eGovernment Action Plan” where stress in put on the need for strengthening citizen participation and democratic decision making in Europe. Calls for greater government transparency and accountability have also grown, as public and media scrutiny of government actions increases.

Based on the above, it is evident that there is a strong need to provide more sophisticated solutions in order to improve the legislative (or deliberation in general) process in any policy level by enhancing the public participation in the preparatory stages (legislation formation and debate).

As far as it concerns the energy sector, the world today is facing an energy and environmental challenge. This challenge, acute for Europe and shared by all Member States, concerns how to secure clean energy for Europe against a backdrop of climate change, escalating global energy demand and future supply uncertainties. If a Member State fails to meet this challenge, other Member States are eventually affected. Problems that arise outside European Union, can have an impact on the whole of the EU something that is the cornerstone for the establishment of a strong Energy Policy for Europe (EPE).

• Empowering the legislation proposal formation stage.
• Support the debate at municipal level, but with a truly Pan-European orientation
• Target the legislative and policy issues of Energy and Environment
• Test in practice novel approaches for user involvement.