The AER Bureau in Nordland (NO) on 22 June will address the issue of (R)e-inventing Democracy and the impact of technologies on the democratic process. All member regions are invited to submit amendments to the proposed political declaration. Please use the comment box below, providing the name of your region, to submit amendments or send us an email.

(R)e-inventing Democracy
A regional approach

Whereas: participation in elections is decreasing steadily in Europe;

Whereas: governments are faced with increasingly complex challenges ranging from economic development to countering radicalisation or fighting climate change;

Whereas: new technologies are multiplying the opportunities for citizens participation by means of sharing opinions, advice, evaluation, financial support, co-creation;

Whereas: new technologies must be used in respect of the citizens’ privacy;

Whereas: tapping into the human capital both inside and outside institutions via IT applications could boost innovation, increase engagement, save time and financial resources;

Whereas: In a democracy the role of citizens is central and their participation is the corner stone of legitimacy;

Whereas: AER has a history of defending the recognition of the principle of subsidiarity and its implementation;

Whereas: AER’s leading theme for 2016 is “revitalizing democracy”;

We, the Assembly of European Regions:

1. commit to strengthen cooperation between all the regions of Europe to share experiences and continuously innovate in the public sector;
2. recognise the need for multi-stakeholder approaches for economic, social and political participation to face societal challenges;
3. encourage the public, private and non-governmental sectors to incite citizen-led initiatives;
4. underline the importance of design in public services to provide citizens with opportunities to contribute to the public good with their talent;
5. deem education to be critical in creating a climate of innovation, openness, inclusion and entrepreneurial spirit;
6. insist on the importance of youth involvement in policy-making: youth participation should be fostered from an early age;
7. call on all EU, national and regional stakeholders to speed up the deployment of broadband across the European territory;
8. highlight the need for e-literacy across generations and communities;
9. call on tech companies to increase their teams’ diversity to enhance their innovation potential and ensure the contraction of the gender and minority gaps in technology.