On 20. April, at the regular meeting of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, the Committee for European affairs presented the project entitled Consultations with the EU Citizens, carried out in Slovenia as a part of a pan- European debate on the future of Europe. Two cases of citizen involvement in national debates were presented as a part of the plan D framework for dialogue, democracy and debate. These two cases were: the debate on the future of the EU, organised in Portorož on 10. and 11. February 2007, and internet consultations and debates running from June 2006 to June 2007 at the Future Forum.

Both cases deserve particular attention because they represent a direct implementation of the most recent supplementation of political democracy at the EU level. This supplementation is directed towards a reinforced role of non-governmental organisations and citizens in decision-making processes, and the intensive use of information and communication technologies in democratic processes.

The terrain for the consultations described above has been in process of preparation since the 1990s, taking its direct shape with the Proposal of the EU Constitutional Treaty, which mentions in Article 47 the principle of participatory democracy for the first time. This is an important conceptual supplementation of the hegemonic idea of political democracy, in Europe historically associated with representative democracy (Article 46), and those political elements of active European citizenship related to participation in European political parties and participation in European parliamentary elections. The principle of participatory democracy is an important addition because it opens and legitimises the very part of social dialogue referring to democratic co-operation of non-governmental organisations in an open, transparent and regular dialogue with the EU institutions, and those political elements of active European citizenship related to co-formation of common conditions for quality living in regards to expression and opinion exchange, as well as addressing initiatives to the EU institutions without the intention of fighting for political power.

The principle of participatory democracy is an important challenge for Slovenian non-governmental organisations since it offers the role of active political elements in the EU. This role demands certain financial, staffing and intellectual capacities, which the majority of undernourished Slovenian non-governmental institutions currently lack. It is therefore important they attempt to influence European decisions through a network of European NGO, while utilising the advantages of information and communication technologies in promoting active European citizenship. Namely, the said technologies provide an accessible, interactive, transparent and relatively fast integration into the democratic processes.

One of such innovative approaches in the field of e-democracy and e-participation in the web Future Forum - (Forum prihodnosti http://www.e-participacija.si/forum_EU/) intended for public and democratic exchange of expectations and visions of Slovene citizens about the future EU policies and dialogue with Slovene representatives at the European parliament. The interned forum is a promising attempt of supplementation of the representative democracy model, with elements of participatory-deliberative democracy. Its positive effects were shown in the case of the web debate about the future European social model between EU representative Miha Brejc and over 100 students (later presented in the European Parliament). This case is of interest because it joined the virtual element of partaking in a web debate, as well as it highlighted the importance of the e-point, established exclusively for the purpose of the Student Arena manifestation. This simultaneously used the opportunity for political participation in actual space with its most prominent occasion of the consultations of Slovenian citizens on the European future in Portorož.

In both instances, the communicative processes of Slovenian citizens' inclusion in national debates about the future of the EU were carried out by non-governmental organisations. The Future Forum was headed by the Centre for e-democracy at the Institute of Ecology, while the Portorož debate was organised and carried out by the Centre for information, co-operation and development of NGOs. Both practices confirm the consensus of European institutions, which recognise non-governmental organisations as key elements in the realisation of the participatory democracy principle in the EU. The presumption that the presentation of both cases of citizens' participation in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia was of symbolic importance for the further development of Slovenian democracy is therefore not exaggerated.

Simon Delakorda
Institute of Ecology
Centre for e-democracy
Ljubljana

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