5: Public Engagement Service
Establish a cross institutional coordinated “Service for Public Engagement” Other Information:
The overall goal is to make institutions citizen-centric, as opposed to institutional-centric, open, transparent, inclusive,
accountable, and responsible directly to citizens in a coordinated and largely standardised way. The service would make it
easier for citizens who mainly do not care about the EU structures or the mechanisms of engagement and participation. People
do not want to understand or grapple with governance institutional structures or processes, but they often do want to be involved
in discussing and solving policy issues. Provide a single access point or one-stop-shop, for most if not all citizen engagement
with European institutions, including a single approach, mechanisms and tools. The „architecture‟ of participation and eParticipation
seen from the perspective of Europeans needs to be made much more easy and standardised, as well as flexible and open-ended.
Agree common standards, codes of conduct and behaviour, charters, quality guidelines, decision-aids, agreed structures and
rules for debate, policy input, etc. Develop good practice guidelines which are easily accessible and consolidated, perhaps
inspired by those developed by the Council of Europe (2009), but more concrete and operational. Appoint an internal cross-institutional
“Champion” or “Office of Public Engagement” with real power and influence to help coordinate policies and strategies, share
good practice and build institutional expertise and memory. Operate an effective external communication and awareness raising
strategy. Build on existing initiatives such as the Commission‟s minimum standards for consultation, but go much further and
seek to extend coordination between institutions.
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