The Applied Research and Communications Fund organised a pilot for Bulgaria consultation with citizens on sustainable consumption, which was held on the 25 th of October 2014 at the premises of Universiada Hall in Sofia. The method is known as Europe Wide Views.
The event hosted more than 100 people from across the country. Its objective was to provide an opportunity for participants to deliberate on issues, related to sustainability and economic development, waste management, production and consumption of energy, existing regulations, consumer choice options, as well as existing dilemmas which national and European policy-makers face when dealing with such topics. Thus, on one hand citizens could contribute to a better understanding of the challenges, related to sustainability issues, and on the other hand, they identified public policies which according to them shall be introduced both at national and European level.
In parallel to the Bulgarian event, citizens’ consultations on the same topic were held on the same day in the following European countries: Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Lithuania. The summarised results of all citizens’ panels, which can be found here, will be fed into a recommendations report to be submitted to the Commission in the beginning of 2015 in order to serve as a basis for the design of future European policies for sustainable development in the next 15 to 20 years.
The application of this new to our country method for citizens engagement is supported by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union under the project “ Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment” (PACITA).
For more information, please visit www.pacitaproject.eu.
