PEREDEP · Promoting E-Rulemaking in the EU through Deliberative Procedures

Promoting E-Rulemaking in the EU through Deliberative Procedures

The project “Promoting E-Rulemaking in the EU through Deliberative Procedures” (PEREDEP) was based at the Institute for Future Media and Journalism (FuJo) at the School of Communications at Dublin City University with Dr Anastasia Deligiaouri as a post-doctoral Marie Curie Research Fellow and Dr Jane Suiter Associate Professor at the School of Communications and Director of FuJo as the supervisor. PEREDEP is an interdisciplinary project standing at the crossroads of political science (with specific attention to deliberation theory and participatory democracy), media studies (with specific attention to new media theory and e-participation) and specifically law making procedures in the EU. Its innovative character lies in the effective combination and implementation of deliberation, law making and policy making procedures for the purpose of strengthening the citizen’s voice in the EU and more precisely in law making procedures and policies. It assesses the potential and limitations of ‘e-rulemaking’ in the European Union. The project addresses two major topics: responsible citizenship and the prerequisites for qualitative civic participation in an e-rulemaking initiative in the EU following-deliberative procedures. In order to do so, it has examined the preconditions for meaningful and effective political participation that can have an impact on policy making in the context of e-rulemaking. It has analysed in depth the Better Regulation Agenda of the EU. As PEREDEP has been developed on both theoretical and empirical dimensions it has produced results that advance both theory and practice. Objectives and overview More specifically, the project’s research objectives were: to develop a novel theoretical approach on e-rulemaking that will delineate the preconditions of effective citizens participation and examine the impact of deliberative procedure on policy making with the development of an innovative Policy Impact Tool (PIT) to conduct a virtual e-rulemaking deliberative experiment that would assess in practice empirical insights from the theoretical part to liaise via consultations and discussions with EC dedicated agents and DGs and acquire round knowledge from both theory and practice in order to inform its outcomes and produce policy recommendations for successful implementation of an e-rulemaking instrument in the EU This project has developed a novel theoretical approach to the pre-conditions for meaningful and effective political participation in the specific context of e-rulemaking. It has offered robust theoretical foundations to current and future EU efforts to promote e-participation in law and policy-making and has inquired into how deliberative e-rulemaking can advance the democratic legitimacy of decision-making processes and have an impact on policy making in the context of the Better Regulation Agenda of the EU. The project tested the theoretical conclusions with empirical methods (e.g by running a virtual workshop) and had consultation with policymakers and other actors. In this way the outputs of the project apart from having contributed to the academic discipline of deliberative democracy have also provided critical developments on an empirical level that may inform the workplan of the European Commission in relation to citizens’ engagement and more citizen-centred policy making,

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