Innovative crowdsourcing in Bulgaria reveals where digitalisation fails many of its citizens

An innovative crowdsourcing initiative in Bulgaria sheds light on a critical gap in Bulgaria’s digital transition: while investment in technology has accelerated, citizens continue to face barriers rooted in skills, institutions, and everyday usability. Hundreds of Bulgarian citizens point to the same issues: lack of practical digital skills, public services that are difficult to use, and insufficient local support — problems that continue to exclude elderly people, rural communities, and vulnerable groups from the digital transition.

The findings come from IDEU – Inclusive Digitalisation in the EU, a Europe-wide crowdsourcing initiative in which Bulgaria achieved the highest level of citizen participation among all partner countries. By collecting real-life experiences and solutions directly from citizens, the process generated one of the strongest evidence bases in the project and turned everyday problems into concrete policy proposals.

IDEU brings together citizens, civil society organisations, experts, and policymakers across six EU countries to ensure that digital policies are shaped by real needs, not assumptions. Citizen input gathered in Bulgaria and across Europe is translated into actionable policy recommendations and shared with decision-makers at local, national, and EU level — so that Europe’s digital transformation works for people, not just for systems

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CODE Europe: E-participation for Good Governance and Active Citizenship

Co-Deciding Europe: Civic Tech for Good Governance and Active Citizenship (CODE Europe), a project implemented in 2021 -2023, piloted the use of crowdsourcing to improve legislation in the EU. Using advanced IT solutions and tailor-made digital tools and platforms, the project aimed at developing a culture of digital democracy and empowered citizens and public authorities to use modern means of interaction in the decision-making process on the subject of air quality.

CODE Europe was carried out by a consortium of organisations from Hungary, Iceland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, Estonia and Slovenia. The actual crowdsourcing took place in Athens (Greece), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), Lisbon (Portugal), Burgas (Bulgaria) and Budapest (Hungary).Besides implementing the crowdsourcing activities in Burgas, ProInfo developed the communications and citizen engagement strategy of the entire project TCODE Europe was carried out with financial support from the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.

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