LEX-IS - Enabling Participation Of The Youth In The Public Debate Of Legislation Among Parliaments, Citizens And Businesses In The European Union
The vision of the LEX-IS Project is to improve the legislative process in National Parliaments through enhancing public participation in the preparatory stages (legislation formation and debate) with the use of state-of-the-art information technology tools and methodologies, specifically targeting and promoting the participation of younger citizens in the public debate on key-issues for the society.
This will be achieved by pursuing the following goals:
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Establishing the LEX-IS network, that consists of the members of the LEX-IS consortium (Parliaments, Universities, IT Companies) including also key players outside the consortium (NGOs, collective and representative bodies). "Raisons d’ etre" of such a network summarize in processing and developing key legislative issues and enhancing co-operation amongst Parliaments in 2 European Union member states (Austria, Lithuania) with a view to facilitate gradual integration of legal issues at a pan-European level.
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Bringing together the ‘core players’ by providing means for the actual participation of citizens, businesses, non-governmental organizations and Parliamentarians in the preparation and debate phases - following the regulations of each Parliament. Focus will be laid on attracting the youth participating in the Model European Parliament
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Increasing awareness, by organising events and communication channels in order to strengthen and further explore the LEX-IS network to a wider audience in the the EU25 and in a pan-European level by sharing experiences through the LEX-IS forum and by creating liaisons with existing related initiatives and projects.
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Applying already developed tools for managing the complex legislative frameworks and legal structures (draft legislation, existing legislation, amendments and changes) with the intention of persuading Parliaments that adopting and sustaining such an e-participation tool will streamline their processes.
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Modelling and representation of legal elements (directives, laws, decrees) so as to assist argument visualization and legal impact for the public. To this end, ontologies and metadata schemas will be developed for the semantic annotation of legal elements, so that all involved parties can easily locate the necessary information with the use of internet-based retrieval tools.
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Modelling of the exact process followed during the preparatory legislative phases (legislation preparation, debate, draft legislation formation), with the use of workflow management technologies.
In this context, the LEX-IS Project aims to contribute towards:
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Engaging NGOs, citizens, businesses and especially the younger citizens online and bridging the growing gap between citizens and the state, represented by National Parliaments.
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Promoting eParticipation awareness and occupation of citizens with national affairs, without requiring any specialist knowledge.
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Gathering informed evidence that has been structured in a clear and unambiguous fashion, in order to provide input to the Parliaments and make them view policy issues from the public perspective. Parliamentarians can analyze this information to review public support of each case and perhaps revise or change its justification to make the policy more amenable to public support
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Recruiting participants, whether individuals or organizations (NGOs), who can impart experience and expertise.