Making Yourself Heard

European Commission
The EU in your Country

Accessibility tools

Service tools

Language selector

Current languageen

Navigation path

European Commission
Ireland
The_eu_and_you
Making_yourself_heard


Latest news

About us

Contact us

EU services in Ireland

Events

Info for Journalists

Schools

About the EU

The EU and You
The EU in your county

Doing Business in Europe

Living in Europe

Shopping in Europe

Studying in Europe

Travelling in Europe

Working in Europe

Making Yourself Heard
Public consultations
FAQ

Ireland in the EU

Tenders and grants

Making Yourself Heard

E-mail this page

Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the EP, Pat Cox, President of European Movement, and José Manuel Barroso at the European Citizens Summit in May 2009 The European Commission is making great efforts to let all EU citizens have their say on the future of Europe.

With 27 nations and a population of 500 million there’s certainly plenty of diverse views on what direction the EU should take and on how it should function on a day-to-day basis.

The EU is a unique economic, social and political union which operates through cooperation between member states. But it can only work with direct involvement from ordinary citizens.

Results of recent referendums on EU treaties in France, Holland and Ireland have shown the politicians and policy makers just how important it is to listen, and the Commission is now more determined than ever to give EU citizens a louder voice in Europe.

A new approach to European communication that puts citizens at the heart of European policies has now been developed.

The approach is based on strategic principles, which include listening to citizens and taking their views and concerns into account. Other principles include communicating how policies affect everyday living and connecting with citizens by 'going local' and addressing people in their national or local settings, using their favourite form of media.

The European Commission also organises consultations with the public and relevant stakeholders on different policy areas. The results of these consultations are then taken into account when drawing up new policies.

	Europe for Citizens In July 2005, the Commission agreed on an action plan to improve communicating Europe to citizens. It set out 50 practical steps for the Commission to take to improve dialogue with ordinary citizens. The following year the Commission decided to make communication a policy in its own right. It published a White Paper that put forward five areas for action to help citizens obtain information and express their opinions. The communication policy incorporates several principles such as the right to information and freedom of expression as well as the inclusion of all citizens in public debate. The Commission also designed a programme which enables EU citizens to meet and organise public debates on Europe. The Europe for Citizens programme covers the period 2007-13 and it’s designed to ensure that EU citizens are actively involved in the process of European integration. Its aims include fostering a sense of ownership of the European Union among citizens andgiving them the opportunity to interact and participate in constructing an ever closer Europe.
	Talk about Europe Bridging the gap between Europe and its citizens means providing spaces – both virtual and physical – for debate on the European project. In 2007 the first of a number of European public spaces were set up in Madrid, Tallinn and Dublin in collaboration with the European Parliament. The spaces provide a meeting place for citizens, politicians, media professionals, NGOs or others to discuss matters relating to Europe. They’re designed to host exhibitions, films, forums of debate and lectures focusing mainly on civil society, politics, education, academia, think tanks and the cultural world. Virtual spaces are also being provided by the Commission under its Internet Strategy . Europa– the EU's multilingual web portal – is visited by around half a million people every day. However, the sheer volume and diversity of information on the site makes it difficult to navigate. The Internet Strategy aims to make Europa simpler, more user-friendly and easier to browse and find clear information. Europa will become increasingly interactive with blogs, ‘wikis’ and online discussion forums providing citizens with new ways to have a say on Europe. The European Commission supports a number of events created to give citizens an opportunity to learn more about the EU and have a say in shaping its future. Some of the events are aimed at schools and colleges including the annual Spring Day for Europe– an operation in which more than 3,000 schools across the EU hold live debates with politicians and host internet discussions between pupils in different countries.
	Consult with Europe In the run-up to the European Parliament Election in 2009 European citizens were given a unique opportunity to have their say in the debate on the challenges facing the EU. The European Citizens’ Consultations 2009 (ECC 2009) project initially attracted interest from around 200,000 Europeans when online forums were launched in each of the 27 EU member states in December 2008. Their collective ideas were fed into national consultations which took place in the early part of 2009. In Ireland 50 of the participants were selected to reflect a cross-section of Irish society and they took part in a consultation conference at Dublin Castle in March 2009. There they discussed what they thought the EU could do to shape its economic and social future and came up with ten recommendations for action. Similar consultations took place in each of the 27 EU countries and the 1,600 participants were asked to vote for their top 15 recommendations. Then 150 citizens who took part in the national events – including five from Ireland - travelled to Brussels for a European Citizens’ Summit in May 2009 where they handed over their recommendations to top EU policy-makers and politicians. The recommendations will now form part of the debate on Europe’s future and could be incorporated into EU law.
	Being heard in Europe In August 2009, the European Commission launched an interactive website designed to encourage dialogue with Irish citizens. Talktoeu.ie was designed to foster greater mutual understanding between the EU and the Irish public. Visitors to the site are invited to log on, ask questions, give opinions, voice concerns and find out more about what the EU is doing for their local area and for Ireland as a whole. The Commission also has an online single access point where all EU citizens can play an active role in the European policy making process. Your Voice in Europe features a variety of consultations, discussions and other tools aimed at giving citizens a voice in the EU. EU nationals can get involved by responding to consultations on a wide range of topics covering just about any subject. When completed, the consultations help shape future EC policy on the issue. Your Voice in Europe also provides links to other EU sites where citizens can submit their experience of problems they’ve encountered in the EU. This information helps officials monitor how EU policies work in practice and anonymous feedback can help prevent similar problem for other citizens. The EU’s Interactive Policy Making (IPM) initiative is another way for citizens of Europe to have their voices heard. IPM is basically an online questionnaire management system that assists policy development by allowing rapid and targeted responses to emerging issues and problems.