EU citizens engagement initiative and Digital platforms for Open policy making in Finland, United Kingdom and Republic of Macedonia

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1 EU citizens engagement initiative and Digital platforms for Open policy making in Finland, United Kingdom and Republic of Macedonia Ganka Cvetanova, PhD - University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje Veno Pachovski, PhD - University American College Skopje Irena Bojadzievska, PhD - Ministry of Information society and administration 10th annual international academic conference on European integration EUROPEAN INTEGRATION - NEW PROSPECTS May 21, 2015

2 Methodology of research The paper evaluates the digital platform for citizens engagement in the process of open policy making in Republic of Macedonia, in comparison with the digital platforms in Finland and United Kingdom, based on the EU initiative for citizens engagement. The methodological approach in this research relies on analysis of governments politics on open policymaking process, as well as the digital platforms and digital tools used for this purpose. 2

3 Structure of the paper 1. Legal basis 2. Tools enabling citizens engagement 3. Civil society reflections 4. Political commitment and reforms in the public sector 3

4 Finland declared its independence on December 6, 1917, after being a grand duchy in the Russian empire for 108 years, and a part of Sweden for 600 years before that. Current form of government is Republic, parliamentary democracy. It has a parliament with 200 members in one chamber, elected every 4 years in a direct vote. Head of State is a President of the Republic, elected every 6 years, and may serve maximum two terms. Finland is a Member of European Union since

5 Finland - Legal basis For the purpose of enabling citizen s engagement and an open policy-making process, Finland amended its Constitution [March (2012)], at least fifty thousand Finnish citizens entitled to vote have the right to submit an initiative for the enactment of an Act to the Parliament. citizens can pass complete bills directly to parliament imposing obligation to the Parliament to process any bill that collects 50,000 signatures from citizens of voting age. Alternatively, citizens can make a proposal for a bill, which will then be examined and potentially drafted by a ministry. In parallel, Finland introduced the European Citizens' Initiative. The Citizen's Initiative Act includes also provisions from the EU Regulation. 5

6 openministry.info 6

7 UK Conventional Name is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales. Government Type is a Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy. Legislature is defined by a bicameral Parliament which consists of House of Lords (618 seats; consisting of approximately 500 life peers, 92 hereditary peers, and 26 clergy) and House of Commons (646 seats since 2005 elections); members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year term. United Kingdom is a Member of European Union since The Cabinet Office is responsible for the open policy-making. 7

8 UK legal basis part of The Civil Service Reform Plan adopted in setting open policy making to become the default. the government must not have a monopoly over policy-making so it has to be robust, open, honest and constructive. widening the range of views and inputs. The ultimate goal - designing policies that reflect the realworld experiences of citizens and harness public engagement with the policy-making process. the Civil Service Reform Plan suggests variety of tools, such as a crowd-sourced wiki, wide public input by crowd sourcing, Policy Labs which draw in expertise from a range of people and organisations etc. 8

9 nsultations 9

10 Open consultations in UK 10

11 Republic of Macedonia a relatively young democratic country gaining its independence in 1991, in the so-called third wave of democracy. Government type is a parliamentary democracy with an executive government elected by a unicameral parliament. the Assembly (parliament) is made up of 123 seats and the members are elected every four years. the President of the Republic - mostly ceremonial and the real /executive power rests in the hands of the Government which makes the prime minister the most politically powerful person in the country. a candidate country for EU membership. the Ministry of Information Society and Administration is responsible for open policy-making. 11

12 RM legal basis (1) entitled proposers of the laws are: the Government (95% of the cases), a group of members of the Parliament or the citizen s with a threshold of signatures. The Government Rulebook of procedure i.e. its amendments as of 2008, the mechanism of regulatory impact assessment and transparency of the law-making procedure by instituting an obligation for the ministries for compulsory publication of the draft proposal on its web and the Single National Electronic Registry on National Legislation (Bojadzievska, 2015: 133). 12

13 RM legal basis (2) Also, as a feedback mechanism, the Government Rulebook of procedure, obliges the ministries to draft reports for the obtained proposals where they shall indicate the accepted comments and/or proposals, but also elaborate the reasons for the comments and proposals that were not accepted. Such reports also to be published on the respective ministry s web and the Single National Electronic Registry on National Legislation (ener.gov.mk). 13

14 R of Macedonia - ener.gov.mk 14 Page last visited on May 20, 2015, 20 o clock

15 Activities on ener.gov.mk 15 Page last visited on May 20, 2015, 20 o clock

16 Conclusions All of the three countries have a strong commitment to open policy-making and established this process by certain legal instruments. The research uncovered that in UK and Macedonia the process of developing capacities to carry out the consultations was attributed to reforms in the public sector. Unlike these two cases, in the case of Finland no major public sector reforms were implemented, thus the leadership of open policy-making is in the hands of the civil society. 16

17 Conclusions All three countries embraced electronic tools to provide citizens engagement in the policy-making process and a manner to facilitate the process. In all three cases there is a legitimacy given to the civil society organizations and the feedback they give has a strong impact on open policymaking. 17

18 Conclusions The empirical findings in this study enhance our understanding of the importance of the open policymaking as a precondition for the development of democratic processes and democratic institutions within society. also provide a profound understanding of the relationship between digital platforms and citizens engagement, as well as the Civil Service reform process, as the key elements in the open policy-making. Despite the rapid rise in the use of digital technology among citizens and civil society organizations, there is little data available on the impacts they have had on the political processes and institutions they are intended to influence in emerging democracies. 18

19 Future research So, further research on this topic should be undertaken in order to investigate the use of digital technology among citizens and civil society organizations, as well as the impact they have had on the political processes and institutions in the democratic societies. 19

20 Thank you for your attention! Ganka Cvetanova, PhD Veno Pachovski, PhD Irena Bojadzievska, PhD 10th annual international academic conference on European integration EUROPEAN INTEGRATION - NEW PROSPECTS 20