The Federal Government has invited Belgian citizens to take part in a nationwide debate regarding the future of the country's democracy and state structures via an online platform.
People over the age of 16 can share their ideas on various topics, from how to organise the country politically to the potential role of citizens to contribute to society, by responding to open questions compiled by a team of independent experts, including law and political science professors.
"We started out from six themes: 'What is the role of the citizen?', 'What are our fundamental rights?', 'How do we organise our country?', 'Who does what?', 'How should Parliament and the government work?' and 'How do we organise elections?'," the experts said.
"In each case, we present a number of challenges, asking two open questions: 'How would you do that?' and 'Why do you choose to do it that way?'. In this way, we want to collect answers and recommendations that are as open as possible and with which we can then get to work."
Aside from citizens, civil society organisations, local authorities and the academic world have also been invited to take part in the debate and share their opinion on these issues via the "A Country for the Future" online platform, which is available in Dutch, French and German.
Broader plan
The launch of the participatory platform ties in with a broader process, namely the Dialogue Platform on the Future of Belgian Federalism, which also includes thematic working groups within the government, exploring topics in citizen panels or in mixed panels with citizens and parliamentarians, and a dialogue among political representatives.
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"Digital tools are not an end in themselves. They are meant to serve society. In this case, the platform is a tool that will be used to build the way we want to live together in the years to come. It is a good example of digital serving society," State Secretary for Digitalisation Mathieu Michel.
Opinions of other participants can also be found on the website, as well as tools for organisations, local governments, schools and universities to organise dialogue moments themselves with their members, citizens, students or pupils to exchange perspectives.
Renewal of democracy
People are given six weeks (until Sunday 5 June) to respond to the survey. All answers will then be processed anonymously, and a report will summarise the proposals and recommendations of the participants.
This report will later be made publicly available and will be sent to the Federal Government and to Parliament, which is expected to draw inspiration from it, particularly when they explore certain topics in more detail via citizens' panels or mixed panels composed of both citizens and parliamentarians.
"This report will serve as an important input for the renewal of our democracy and the preparation of future state reform. Based on the insights and recommendations of the participants in this process, we can continue the dialogue," Ministers for Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal, Annelies Verlinden and David Clarinval, said.
