U@MARENOSTRUM Final Conference Abstract. The Final Conference of the U@MARENOSTRUM project took place in Brussels, Belgium on the 17th of February, 2011. Title: e-Participation for regions and cities U@Marenostrum: the water management in the Mediterranean - lessons learned

1. e-Participation for regions and cities
U@Marenostrum: the water management in the Mediterranean: lessons learned
Thursday, 17th February, 2011
at the Valencian Regional Office in Brussels,
Avenue Edmond Mesens, 7a, 1040 - Brussels
ABSTRACT
In many European countries turnouts at local, national and European elections have been falling and there are
numerous reasons for this. The most frequents ones is that perhaps voters feel their vote will not “make a difference”
or that their concerns and opinions are not being listened to or acted upon. More widely, people have higher
expectations as regards the quality and efficiency of public services as well as access to public institutions and elected
politicians. There is greater demand for public services and information to be customised to their needs and available
at a touch of button, or click of a mouse. Achieving this would require improvements in the way public services are
provided today.
Local and national Governments together with the EU institutions are working with citizens to identify and test ways
of giving them more of a stake in the policy-shaping process. ICTs provide a range of tools which can facilitate citizens’
access to information about what decisions are being taken which affect their lives and how the decision-making
process works contributing to foster communication and interaction processes between politicians and government
bodies on the one side, and citizens on the other.
Increasing transparency and public participation benefits democracy and should improve the quality of legislation
being adopted. It is also good for the cohesion of European society since participation promotes a sense of ownership
of the political process as well.
U@Marenostrum is a project co-financed by the EU program eParticipation that aims at supporting citizens and local
actors to identify and solve important environmental problems related to the management of water and marine
environmental protection in the Mediterranean regions in order to enhance their participation in the environmental
legislative and decision making processes.
The objective of this conference is to present the results of the Mediterranean pilots and benchmark them with other
projects related to the need of reconnecting ordinary people with politics and policy-making while facilitating the
comprehension and the follow-up of legislative processes through the use of new Information and Communication
Technologies.
Working language: English.
www.uatmarenostrum.eu