19/02/2014
As announced at the General Assembly of Cascais (Portugal) and approved by the Executive Committee, the working group on public consultation is taking place. The workgroup shall start by the end of February in order to be able to deliver a text at the beginning of summer 2014. The deadline is dependent upon the Ministerial Session of the CEMAT Council of Europe organized by the Greek Presidency which will coincide, in June, with the closing of the Greek Presidency of the European Union. We therefore propose, as a first step, to think about the basic concepts of this form of democracy and produce a “Charter of Participatory Democracy” which is based on the model of the great conventions of the Council of Europe, would be short and concise, and carries a strong political message. We, spatial planners, are relevant in defining the principles that should found this form of democracy as a counterbalanced power to the Representative Democracy during the development of urban projects. The civil society to which we, as experts, belong, shall define all the rules and duties that require the exercise of direct democracy and the implementation of participatory processes to decision pertaining to spatial planning. If you are interested in the work and you have, by the end of June, the time required for this reflection, we suggest you send us your motivated application. We would prefer receiving your reaction by the end of February, and we can then finalise at the ExCo meeting to be held on March 1st. Call for interest EN - FR