We present to you the publication 50 Questions from YOU to the EU and YOU4EU Policy Recommendations on Transparency and Citizen Participation which were prepared by Belgrade Open School in cooperation with the partners from Montenegro (Institute Alternative), Croatia (Gong), Slovenia (PiNA) and Spain (Access Info Europe) within the Project YOU4EU – Citizen participation 2.0.
The Project ran from September 2018 to February 2020 and was funded by European Union within the Europe for Citizens Programme.
2. Informing decision-makers about the questions of high interest for citizens and obtain answers about development and implementation of respective public policies
3. Identifying problems which hinder the inclusion of citizens in decision-making processes and formulating recommendations for the improvement of the level of inclusion and transparency of policy-making process
Together with the Project partners, we organised a social media campaign and invited citizens to ask decision-makers everything they would like to know about priorities and problems in policy-making processes. Before the campaign, we mapped key topics which were used for moderation and direction of citizen social media engagement.
During December 2018 and January 2019, around 300 citizens participated in the campaign in all five partnering countries and left around 370 questions and comments on the following topics:
Once the social media campaign was completed, we prepared questionnaires with the most frequent citizens’ questions and sent them to targeted decison-makers and stakeholders.
The aim of the questionnaires was not only to obtain answers to the citizens’ questions, but also to raise awareness among decision-makers about the challenges and problems which require prompt action of the authorities and high inclusion of citizens in the formulation of respective policies.
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The publication provides an overview of 50 key citizens’ questions about important political, economic and social processes which should be highly positioned on the national and EU agenda, together with the answers of targeted decision-makers. 4. Policy Recommendations on Transparency and Citizen Participation
These policy recommendations set out the main conclusions and a series of specific recommendations for the European Union and national governments regarding the improvement of transparency and citizen participation. The recommendations are the result of the research activities which were the basis for the preparation of the publication 50 Questions from YOU to the EU and four public events which were organised in Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Serbia, between September and December 2019. |