Bridging citizens with SMART cooperation session, co-organized by UBC and Out of the Box, will be held virtually at this year’s European Week of Regions and Cities on 7 October 2020 at 14.30-16.00 CET.

Every democratic community demands the active participation of its citizens in shaping the community. Partners will present how to examine and analyse the priorities in cities/communities using citizens’ input, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Communication, thus enabling and stimulating inclusive democratic processes. Data collected from citizens can feed into the advocacy initiatives and daily political decision making but very often the concerns are how to avoid the misuse of such information and support for example the priorities created by the citizens. During the session, some solutions will be explored on how to stimulate and help citizens build local projects and initiatives. Finally, the participants will discuss how COVID-19 has influenced citizenship initiatives.

Among the speakers there will be Mantas Jurgutis, UBC President.

The session is co-organized by UBC, European Projects Association (EPA), Metropolitan City of Venice, Municipality of Fažana, Out of The Box International, and Unioncamere del Veneto.

The European Week of Regions and Cities

The European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek) is the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to regional policy. The event has grown to become a unique communication and networking platform, bringing together regions and cities from all over Europe, including their political representatives, officials as well as experts and academics. Over the last 17 years, it has done much to promote policy learning and exchange of good practices.

In 2019, the #EURegionsWeek reached a record high of more than 9000 participants and more than 330 sessions, which shows the event’s relevance and potential as a platform for political communication in relation to the development of EU cohesion policy, raising the awareness of decision-makers about the fact that regions and cities matter in EU policy-making.

Registration

Register for the session:
https://europa.eu/regions-and-cities/programme/sessions/1285_en

More information:
https://europa.eu/regions-and-cities/home_en