European Citizens‘ Consultations

Workshop 2: Implementation

Introduction into the major organisational elements

of the ECC process

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The major organisational elements

Recruitment

Partner management

Simultaneousness of events

Media and outreach

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Recruitment

More than 1,800 citizens were selected randomly according to a pre-specified set of selection criteria, incl. age, gender and socio-economic background

Further criteria were included according to national circumstances (regional spread, minorities etc.)

ECC partners opted for a „European“ or „national“ recruitment strategy (i.e. a Europe-wide opinion research agency or national organisation, e.g. universities, market/opinion research agencies)

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Partner Management

A total of 28 national operational partners were involved in the implementation

The major coordination tools were: regular telephone conferences, e-mail exchange, the ECC partner forum

All partners received a training sessions prior to the event (content: the design, integration steps, budget, facilitation, etc.)

The ECC Forum

• News and To dos• ECC Process• Political Agenda• FAQs on National Consultations• Library (training documents, event organisation templates etc.)

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Simultaneousness of events

The national consultations took place over a period of 2 months. 5 to 10 consultations took place simultaneously All national events followed roughly the same schedule with some flexibility (e.g. introduction, lunch time, shorter/longer events)Each national consultation was attended by a „European coordinator“, a member of the central European coordination teamThe „European coordinator“ made sure that data (preliminary results, voting results, pictures, quotes) were exchanged on time (via phone or the forum) and was responsible for Skype „live“ exchangesAll national events had to make the results available to participants by the end of day 2. They had to be translated into English at least 2 days afterward and were then put on the ECC Website

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Simultaneousness of events

Integration points Day 1: (morning) Demographic voting Day 1: (evening) Exchange of preliminary results, translation into

EN and back into native language, integration into powerpoint presentation

Day 2: (morning) Sharing of European results (pictures, quotes, preliminary results)

Day 2: (afternoon) Live Skype session (15 minutes) Day 2: (afternoon) Confidence voting, Feedback voting Sporadic Skype connections throughout the day

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Media and outreach

Each event was preceded, accompanied and followed by press releases at European and national level (responsibility of ECC partner) distributed by e-mail, in print or on the Website as well as close personal contact to media

Each partner was responsible for Having media cover their national event Inviting VIPs (incl. representatives of the European Commission, Parliament, Comm representations, MPs, ambassadors etc.) Informing the European coordination team about media coverage Sending out the outcome document of the national consultation to national policy-makers, VIPs and other “multipliers”Organising follow-up events at national level

OptionalCreation of Website Organisation of Observer Programme

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Group Work

Please split into groups: Recruitment, partner management (incl. coordination, planning, training, budget), Simultaneousness of events (incl. points of integration, coordination of events, media and outreach)Identify challenges and propose solutions bearing in mind limits to the feasibility, i.e.

- Time - Budget- Capacities- Technical means - ...

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Thank you very much for your participation!