People's Assembly proposals to be analyzed in five thematic seminars

Photo: Rahvakogu.ee

Five thematic seminars will be held in Estonia from Monday to Friday to try and find out which of the ideas put forward under the Rahvakogu (People's Assembly) crowdsourcing initiative could best help to solve the problems that led to the rise of the initiative.

In Monday's seminar proposals will be examined that were made for increasing people's involvement in policy-making in-between the elections. The more than 450 thoughts to that effect held out on the People's Assembly website can be divided into eight sub-topics ranging from improving the availability of information about legislative initiatives to proposals to legalize popular initiative, more frequent holding of referendums and giving the people the right of co-deciding with the Riigikogu.

The seminar will be attended both by the authors of the proposals as well as experts working in related areas: researchers, politicians, officials, members of the NGO community, journalists. Having read summaries of the proposals made on the People's Assembly website and the impact assessments added to them, participants in the seminar will assess all the eight sub-topics as regards their effectiveness for achieving broader involvement of the people.

The sub-topics found to be the most relevant and effective will be put before participants of the April 6 deliberation day in which the proposals will be mulled by a representative sample of about 500 residents of Estonia.

Tuesday's seminar will look at ensuring the fairness and controllability of financing of parties and reducing the power of money in political decision-making, Wednesday's seminar at halting the politicization of public space and forced partyization, Thursday's seminar at ensuring fairness and viability of competition within political parties and between them, and Friday's seminar ensuring that the voter's vote has weight in determining the election outcome.

The thematic seminars are organized by the Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations (NENO).