Description
The project addresses the lack of active civic participation in the decision making process due to unclear and non-transparent procedures. The project aims at studying and developing a mechanism of active participation. First, the existing practices in Bulgaria of consultative bodies and online public consultations will be analyzed and presented in an analytic report. Second, the European practices of 10 EU and non-EU Member States will be studied and presented in a report. Third, models of constitution and functioning of consultative bodies (e.g. consultative councils/online consultations) will be presented. Fourth, a round table will be held to raise the awareness of the stakeholders of the European models and their application in Bulgaria. Next, an online database with good practices and a manual on setting up a consultative council with civic participation will be developed. The project will benefit the target groups of decision-makers and civil society organizations.
Summary of project results
The public in Bulgaria does not trust the executive power, whichever it is, and political representation by parties and does not associate itself with the existing civil organizations in the country. It is not by chance that there are more and more requests for the introduction of civil quotas in all regulatory bodies. That means that the civic participation mechanisms in Bulgaria do not work the way they are. The project aimed at developing and using mechanisms for active civic participation in the process of local, national and EU decision-making. As a result, analyses were carried out of the situation in Bulgaria at present and good European practices and 3 models of civic engagement in decision-making were proposed, i.e. the model of broad public consultation model, an advisory council and an online consultation which fully met the project goals. The models aimed at ensuring that civic representation is legitimate and the advisory bodies and forms are working and efficient. The project activities provoked a lot of interest in all the stakeholders, led to a public debate and willingness of the executive and legislative power to commit to the goal with specific steps that would improve interaction between citizens and the government. The opinions of the representatives of the civil sector shared in the evaluation forms also showed the need and the benefit of such a project to support active citizenship. an advisor from the political office of Vice Prime Minister responsible for relations with the civil society assured us that many elements from the online consultation model developed under the project will be applied as part of the upcoming amendments to the government portal for public consultations
www.strategy.bg. For more information:
http://schoolofpolitics.org/norwegian-grant/index.html
Summary of bilateral results