UK Citizens Online Democracy

Online Seminar: Should Britain Join the EMU?

Report on the Seminar:
Lessons Learned and Reccommendations

This is the first of two pages

The Seminar was commissioned by the UK Office of the European Parliament and managed at the UK COD website as a collaborative effort by UK COD and the Scarman Trust during November and December 1996. The techniques and general approach used were modeled on earlier experience in the Minnesota Electronic Democracy programme (http://www.e-democracy.org/), adapted to the UK/European environment and to the specific needs of the EMU debate. It is believed to be the first event of its kind in Europe, bringing together Members of the European Parliament, commercial enterprises and representatives of appropriate communities of interest, with direct participation by citizens in a parallel "open forum". UK Citizens Online Democracy is now running further online discussions on public policy and public interest matters, including (as of March 1997) "Transport - the way ahead" and "The Future of the UK Constitution". All the main UK political parties have contributed statements on these topics.

The European Telework Development Initiative is supporting UK COD's development and provided the discussion coordinator for the EMU discussion.

In this page:

Summary
In page two:
How the seminar was organised
- Steps in the process
- The discussion
- Promotional activity
- Follow up with participants
- Key lessons learned
Report on the online discussion
Development of Internet use and online methods by Parliamentarians
- Online participation by MEPs and their staffs
- Online skills for Parliamentarians
- Skills for support staffs
- Access to skilled support
The relevance of online or "electronic" democracy
Recommendations to Parliaments and other representative assemblies

Appendices

Summary

The Scarman Trust and UK Citizens Online Democracy (UK COD), on behalf of the UK Office of the European Parliament, recently organised and managed an on-line seminar on the subject of whether the UK should join European Monetary Union (EMU). The seminar which took place between 18 November and mid-December 1996, is a significant contribution to the development of new formats in democratic dialogue between MEPs and the public.

Aims of Seminar

1. To promote informed and sustained on-line discussion in clear non-technical language amongst a wide range of organisations and interested MEPs on the subject of EMU;

2. Using the opportunity provided by high public interest in the EMU issue, to provide a pilot study for further European Parliament on-line democracy projects;

3. In so doing, to encourage MEPs to use, and become more knowledgeable about, the Internet, with a view to further use of this new communication medium in contacts with their euro-constituencies, colleagues and other EU institutions.

Overview of the online activity

UK COD provided a web site with:

A range of background materials that could be read by participants and visitors, including material on the topic (EMU, Europe etc) and the mechanisms (how to participate in online discussion;
A "Civic Forum" in which the invited participants could exchange messages; all the messages were available to be seen by the public but only invited participants could send messages in this forum;
A "Public Forum" where any Internet user could comment on the "Civic Forum" discussion and participate in open discussion;
An independent coordinator or chair for the Civic Forum;
A team of "helpers" - people with skills and experience in online discussion, ready to help the invited participants "behind the scenes"
A seminar manager (provided by the Scarman Trust) whose role was to develop the list of invited participants, secure their participation and generally oversee the development and successful running of the seminar.

Fourteen MEPs and 31 organisations agreed to take part in the seminar. Participants were invited on the basis of having an interest in the outcome of EMU, rather than any particular expertise in economics or related fields. There were some lively and well argued contributions made during the course of the seminar.

A high proportion of the intended participants had technical problems or simply lacked time, so the overall level and extent of contributions was somewhat disappointing. However, feedback was generally very positive and the great majority of participants indicated interest in taking part in another on-line seminar.

General Recommendations

Note: These are general recommendations to organisations planning to orchestrate online discussion of public policy issues in a parliamentary and electorate context. Specific recommendations have been made to the European Parliament (UK Office) arising from the seminar and regarding future development of electronic democracy by Members of the Parliament.

1. Given the significance of on-line activity, Parliaments should take early action to provide on-line facilities for their staffs and plan for appropriate training to be given so that they are able to support and respond to the extension of the work of Parliaments into the Internet and other public online media.

2. Parliamentarians (Members of the European Parliament, Members of National Parliaments and Members of Local Governments) should be actively encouraged and supported to 'get connected', to build the use of the world wide web and e-mail into their everyday routines and to establish an effective personal presence on the World Wide Web in their constituencies.

3. Public funds should be made available to encourage, stimulate and support well targeted on-line democracy experimentation and testing, so as to develop networks of best practice in which parliamentarians at all levels can meet their electorates and each other on-line.

Forward to page 2 of the report

Last Updated: 7 March 1997
Page owner: eto site team
Page address http://www.eto.org.uk/etd/policy/emurep1a.htm