Connecting experts and citizens from diverse backgrounds and regions through digital tools in order to shape policies and initiatives.
To actively shape the European Green Deal, online participation can serve as a powerful tool to engage and connect individuals, amplify their voices, and foster inclusive decision-making processes. For this reason, the partners of the REAL DEAL project are delighted to announce the launch of the project’s participatory platform for the European Green Deal – My Real Deal.
The REAL DEAL project sets out to stimulate a pan-European debate involving different stakeholder groups, with the aims of reshaping citizens’ and stakeholders’ active participation and deliberation in the green and just transition. It brings together excellent research with experienced practitioners of deliberative democracy from a wide range of disciplines including environmental rights and the law of public participation, ethics and responsible innovation, gender studies and ecofeminism, psychology, geography, urban planning and applied sustainability studies.
In a massive co-creating exercise, it will research, test and validate innovative tools, formats and processes for deliberative democracy. It involves the EU’s largest networks of civil society organisations active in the field of environment – European Environmental Bureau, climate – Climate Action Network, sustainable development – SDG Watch Europe, local democracy – ALDA and the European Movement International, linking to the youth climate – YEE/Generation Climate Europe and the social justice movement – SOLIDAR. These large networks will invite civil society from across the region to the European Civil Society Forum for the Green and Just Transition to serve as the hub for deliberation on the EDG – making full use of their networks of hundreds of CSOs and millions of citizens across the EU, as well as their established relationships with thousands of policymakers.
The REAL DEAL platform represents a significant step in the efforts to engage citizens in shaping environmental policies all over Europe. Through its multilingualism and multiculturalism, the platform contributes to removing the language and cultural barrier by fostering exchange among citizens from different countries. Each individual is therefore encouraged to write and read contributions in their own language.
My Real Deal provides a space for citizens to voice their opinions, share their concerns, and propose ideas related to the European Green Deal
The purpose of the platform is to serve as a hub for individuals across Europe who are eager to contribute to the transition towards a greener future. Individuals can contribute to the Green Deal discussions by subscribing and sharing the most pressing topic(s) as well as contribute to the debate by reacting to posts from other contributors.
By including citizens from different regions and countries through online participation, solutions and ideas are more actionable. Therefore, this platform fills in the need for a safe place where individuals can engage in discussions, share experiences, and collaborate on solutions regardless of their physical location. This way issues like climate change, which require coordinated efforts on a global scale, can be solved in an inclusive manner.
These online discussions will be analysed by the REAL DEAL project team and incorporated into a report; which will be presented and submitted to the European Commission as part of the research project.
You will find the platform by clicking here.