E-public, e-participation and e-voting in Europe – Prospects and challenges

How can the Internet contribute to the development and establishment of a genuinely European public (e-public)? What are good practices for e-participation in Europe and how can public organisations profit from opening up their processes to a wider audience (e-participation)? Is e-voting a realistic means to increase electoral turnout and what are the conditions for the success of e-voting? These are the main questions being dealt with in this report, which is the final report of the STOA-project on e-democracy: 'Technical possibilities of the use of electronic voting and other Internet tools in Europe'.

The report includes the analysis and insights of a research and consultation project in which three scientific institutes, eleven external experts as participants of two workshops and several Members of the European Parliament were involved. The aim of the project, which ran from January 2010 to September 2011, was to analyse current developments in the area of e-democracy and to relate the insights to the European policy context, especially to the needs of the European Parliament.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/stoa/default_en.htm http://www.europarl.europa.eu/stoa/default_en.htm

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