The European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) recently organised its second Workshop on e-Democracy and e-Governance. The theme of the workshop was the "Current state of use of electronic tools in the context of citizens' participation", focussing on the work of the Council of Europe and its standards in relation to e-Democracy, e-Governance as well as the internet.

The workshop paid particular attention to the Committee of Ministers' Recommendations CM/Rec(2004)15 on e-governance and CM/Rec(2009)1 on e-democracy which set out 80 principles and 102 guidelines with regard to the use of electronic tools, as well as Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)6 on a "Guide to human rights for internet users".

Delegates from Member States presented recent developments and initiatives in their countries before an audience from the political arenas and academia, and exchanged experiences, best practices and lessons learned.

Workshops

The second Workshop on e-Democracy and e-Governance was organised at the National University of Public Service in Budapest as part of the Central and Eastern European e|Dem and e|Gov days 2015, organised by Austria in cooperation with Hungary.

The first Workshop, themed "Electronic tools of local democracy: collection, decision-making and transmission", was held earlier this year in Brussels. In addition to Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 mentioned above, there was a particular interest in Recommendation 274 (2009), on "E-democracy: opportunities and risks for local authorities".

European Committee on Democracy and Governance

The CDDG was established on 1 January 2014 by the Council of Europe (CoE) to implement its intergovernmental work in the field of democratic governance. The Committee builds on the work of the former European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR), providing a platform where senior officials meet to share information, views and best practices on issues concerning territorial reforms, citizens' democratic participation in public life, the modernisation of public administration, dialogue and relations between tiers of government, public finances and trans-frontier cooperation.