ENHANCING CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN POLICY MAKING

Levels and opportunities for, individual citizen participation in policy making differ considerably across countries in the European Union. All countries provide at least a basic level of information on issues which can be accessed by the individual. Similarly, all make efforts to consult citizens during the policy making process, although some are more pro-active about this than others (e.g. some simply provide feedback mechanisms on the internet, while others actively seek to obtain citizens’ views through opinion polls and other mechanisms).