Sponsored by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

9 November 2017 - 14.30-16.30 - Room 2 - Interpretation: FR/EN

The lab will consider the impact of citizens’ monitoring initiatives on corruption and their potential influence on tackling populist trends through strengthening the integrity of, as well as trust in, parliamentarians and other elected officials. 


Lab 8 final report

initiative 1

Vouliwatch: “Empowering Democracy”, Greece

Vouliwatch has developed an online interactive parliamentary monitoring platform which is equipped with a series of digital applications aiming at facilitating citizen control and monitoring over the Greek legislative process whilst enabling citizen participation and direct communication with their elected representatives. This is a legislative monitoring tool which records all votes that take place in parliament whilst breaking down legislation in layman’s terms. It includes profiles for all Greek MPs/MEPs where citizens can monitor their individual activities (including their financial interest statements) & question them publicly as well as send them their own policy recommendations (MPs responses are published on their profiles). it also features a comparative tool which analyses each political party’s stance on given policy areas. A news feed with the latest parliamentary news is also included, as well as access to and analysis of parliamentary data (including a budget tracker) in machine readable/open format.

 https://www.vouliwatch.gr/

Presenter(s)

LOUKOPOULOS Stefanos

Stefanos LOUKOPOULOS

Director of Vouliwatch

Greece

Stefanos Loukopoulos was born in Athens in 1983. He is the co-founder and director of the not for profit parliamentary monitoring organization Vouliwatch. He holds a BA in Politics, as well as an MA in International Relations and in Conflict Analysis. He has worked for NGOs both in London and Brussels as well as in the European Parliament. Stefanos is a founding member of the international association “Parliamentwatch Network” and a standing member of the “Council of Citizens Control” of the Greek public broadcasting service. In recent years he is involved actively both at national and international level in the fields of open government, civic technology and the freedom of access to information.

initiative 2

Partidos Públicos, Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, FCI, Chile

In a context of deep distrust and disaffection between citizens and political parties, Partidos Públicos emerges as an innovative proposal to strengthen this relationship. It seeks to push political parties to comply with greater transparency and the best democratic practices that citizens are demanding. This project aims to provide citizen participation tools and channels to strengthen transparency and accountability in political parties, through a digital platform for the publication and display of information on their finances, decision-making, organisational structure and relationship with other entities.

 http://partidospublicos.cl

Presenter(s)

COLLADA CHAVEZ Pablo

Pablo COLLADA CHAVEZ

Executive Director of Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente

Mexico

Pablo is the Executive Director of Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente (Smart Citizen Foundation), a Latin American organisation based in Chile that designs and implements participation models that integrate research, communication and civic tech. Pablo is a Mexican sociologist that has worked for the past 15 years in the Social Development sector mainly in education, youth and community organisation projects either in the public sector or the civil society arena. His previous work includes being head of the Research Area for the Lab for the City initiative in Mexico City, where he was part of the development of the Open Government Platform.

initiative 3

Cumuleo, Cumuleo.be / Anticor.be / Transparencia.be, Belgium

Cumuleo.be is a monitoring tool for the accumulation of political mandates. It aims to achieve greater, transparency and to fight against conflicts of interest and corruption. The site publishes all the mandates, functions and public or private professions exercised by the political representatives and certain senior Belgian officials.

 https://www.cumuleo.be/

Presenter(s)

VAN GHELUWE Christophe

Christophe VAN GHELUWE

Founder of Cumuleo.be

Belgium

Former architect, Christophe Van Gheluwe became a consultant, by passion, for internet media. Also passionate for democracy, he combined these two interests by creating Cumuleo.be, which publishes the mandates, functions and professions of politicians. He believes that transparency is the barometer of democracy. The more transparent the management of the society, the stronger the democracy. He also co-founded the Belgian section of the French anti-corruption association Anticor, as well as the platform to provide access to administrative documents Transparencia.be. His motto: Transparency is the fuel of democracy!

Discussants

Discussants are invited to take part in the Labs in order to share their experience with the presented democratic initiatives and try to bring broader perspectives to the following discussions.

BRASSEUR Anne

Anne BRASSEUR

Member of Parliament and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Luxembourg

Anne Brasseur, present member of the Luxembourg Parliament, has a degree in psychology. She was elected in 1975 as an advisor to the City of Luxembourg, where she later became Deputy Mayor. She joined the Chamber of Deputies in 1979. From 1999 to 2004 she was Minister of Education and Sports. Within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe she had drafted numerous reports, including the "The Religious Dimension of the Intercultural Dialogue". In 2014 she was elected President of the Assembly, and was renewed in 2015. Today she is Ambassador of the Council of Europe for the Movement against Hate Speech.

HELGESEN Gunn Marit

Gunn Marit HELGESEN

President of the Chamber of Regions of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the CoE

Norway

Gunn Marit Helgesen is President of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS). Since 2012 Ms Helgesen has been delegate to the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, as head of the Norwegian delegation. She is at present the President of the Chamber of Regions. In 2016, Gunn Marit Helgesen was elected Co-President and member of the Presidency of Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR). She also represents Norway in the World Council and Executive Bureau of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), in which she is member of the Financial Management Committee. Ms Helgesen is an elected member of Telemark County Council and has previously held the positions of county mayor and county vice mayor.

MAASSEN Paul

Paul MAASSEN

Director for Civil Society Engagement at the Open Government Partnership

Netherlands

Paul Maassen started working with the Open Government Partnership in June 2012. He is the Director for Civil Society Engagement. Paul has a long track record in the role technology and media can play in changing people's lives and the societies they live in. Prior to joining OGP Paul worked as Head of Finance and Partnerships for WWF International' Global Climate & Energy Initiative, working primarily with WWF offices in emerging economies to strengthen the design and sustainability of their programs. Before joining WWF Paul worked for 7 years with Dutch development organisation Hivos, as program manager for the global ICT & Media program. This is where he learned the ropes of being a funder and got a deep understanding of the complexities of realizing change in developing and repressive countries. Paul strongly believes in the potential of individuals to make a difference if they set their mind to it and get the tools – including technology – to realize their potential. He was also involved in the establishment of the East African citizen agency initiative Twaweza. Paul attained private sector experience with Dutch telecom company KPN. He holds an MSC in industrial engineering and management.

moderator
MATTEI Jean-Baptiste

Jean-Baptiste MATTEI

Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the Council of Europe

France

ZUNZUNEGUI Aline

Aline ZUNZUNEGUI

Founder of Ollin, Youth Department's youth delegation

Mexico

Since 2014, Aline Zunzunegui has researched the political participation of young mexican citizens. Currently, Aline is the Political Advocacy Coordinator of Ollin, Jóvenes en Movimiento, A.C. a non-profit organization based in Mexico, City. She is responsible for the Youth Plan for Democracy, which is an inter-institutional effort to promote the importance of civic engagement in electoral processes to guarantee a truly representative democracy in Mexico. She has a bachelor´s degree in political science and is an expert in Management for Development Results by the Inter-American Development Bank.

rapporteurs
BECK Constantin

Constantin BECK

Secretariat of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Born to German parents in Strasbourg and raised in France, Constantin Beck is a graduated philosophy student from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He currently works for the Secretariat of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

CLAUSSMANN Lisa

Lisa CLAUSSMANN

Stras’Diplomacy

France

LAB 8 - Corruption and populism: can citizen watchdogs help?
Palais de l'Europe, Room 2 9 November 2017 - 14.30-16.30
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