Co-Deciding Europe: Civic Tech for Good Governance and Active Citizenship (CODE Europe) pilots an innovative e-participation collaborative method of crowdsourcing legislation in Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Latvia and Estonia. Using advanced IT solutions and tailor-made digital tools and platforms the project aims at developing a culture of digital democracy and empowers citizens and public authorities to use modern means of interaction in the decision-making process on the subject of ‘air quality’ – a topic chosen because of its transnational nature and the problems associated with it (estimated 400.000 premature deaths in Europe each year).

CODE Europe is carried out by a Consortium of organisations from Hungary, Iceland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, Estonia and Slovenia. The three year project started in January 2021 with the support of the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.

The Consortium members are:

• Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary (Lead Partner)
• European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), Belgium
• Citizens Foundation, Iceland
• European Environmental Bureau, Belgium
• e-Governance Academy Foundation, Estonia
• Foundation of Public Participation, Latvia
• Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS, Latvia
• Institute for Electronic Participation, Slovenia
• “Science for You” NPC – SciFY, Greece
• OneSource Consultoria Informática Lda, Portugal
• Dimos Athinaion Epicheirisi Michanografisis (DAEM S.A.), Greece

 What is CODE Europe All about?

A new deliberative-collaborative e-democracy model is emerging worldwide and crowdsourcing legislation  is a part of it. This method has the potential to contribute to a more engaged and active citizenship and improved good governance  by: enhancing participation  to citizens beyond the typical stakeholders; ensuring knowledge sharing  for both citizens and decision makers on the content and the process; encouraging innovative ideas and ‘hidden’ expertise to participate in the debate;increasing legitimacy of policy-making.

What Are We Doing?

The project partnership contributes to the overall goal of defining shared solutions to common challenges  by achieving the following objectives:

• Develop a universally applicable methodology for assessment of e-participation experiences to be tested through the crowdsourcing pilots in order to ensure a learning curve.
• Develop guidelines for ethical ‘social listening’ which benefits from the availability of big data while protecting individual privacy and safeguarding citizens against inappropriate access to and use of data.
• Contribute to strengthening of democratic culture and civic awareness in the targeted beneficiary countries and EU-wide by soliciting the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ on the subject of ‘air quality’ and gaining insights through social listening which will inform policy-making.
• Ensure exchange of lessons learnt and know-how throughout the project partnership and beyond through a series of events, brainstorms and online courses.

In parallel, within the framework of the DigiDEM project, a similar and closely coordinated exercise will be carried out in Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands and Montenegro.