SMART eD aims to foster European citizenship and improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at EU level by raising citizens awareness of national and EU level initiatives to counter fake news and online disinformation.

The project will create an online repository with all the project outcomes, and will provide recommendations for EU policy-makers on strategies and methodologies for the smart use of eDemocracy tools to counter the negative impact of fake news.

Activities

In order to maximize our results and impact we are joining forces with 6 other organizations from all around Europe. Each partner will carry out the following activities across the EU:

• Survey in a national level in order to analyse citizens attitudes, habits, needs and ideas on the issue.
• International experts meeting to discuss the survey outcomes, share views and develop a methodology for the local events that will follow.
• Local events in each country, that will bring together citizens from rural and semi-rural areas to discuss existing EU initiatives.
• Final conference in Brussels to present the project outcomes and conduct an EU level dialogue involving citizens, NGOs, activists, experts, media and policy-makers.

Click here to see more information on all the local and EU level SMARTeD events (place and dates of the events, number of participants in the events per country, brief description of the activities).

Results

The following results had been achived by the SMARTeD project:

12 local workshops implemented in 6 EU countries with 389 participants. Improved awareness among project target groups, especially (young) European citizens from rural areas about various national and EU level eDemocracy tools, what skills are needed to use them in context with raising number of fake news and populism (e.g. 50% of Slovenian participants indicated that their awareness had significantly improved).

Two international level conferences implemented in Riga and Brussels gathering 130 participants.

Publicly accessible on-line repository with outcomes of an expert survey involving 48 experts, journalist academics from 6 EU countries, 29 best –practices at national and international level, fresh ideas coming from citizens, comprehensive informal learning methodology of one-day program of critical thinking and media literacy applicable to other similar citizens projects and practical workshops usable for similar events in Europe as it would be flexible with international scope.

Outcomes of survey usable in wider national and EU level context.

Clear awareness of the situation how raising amount of national and EU level fake news affects real citizens from rural areas, what impact it leaves on citizen’s use of eDemocracy tools and how to tackle this challenge through increase of level of e-participation in rural areas. Awareness useful for policy-makers at national and EU level.

Project was also aimed towards building a bridge from EU institutions and their initiatives to local citizens of EU and they needs, creating a platform to help to see local and national challenges in context with EU level challenges and to feel more EU citizen with believe in active e-participation as a tool for active citizenship.

Project activities have increased citizen’s understanding of the EU and the results from all 12 local workshops shows that the majority of participants are either “well developed” or “somewhat developed” their (a) curiosity about current European issues, (b) their sense of responsibility as European active citizens and (c) their ownership of European values and a shared vision on the future of Europe. Evaluation answers from all the local events, show a positive outlook towards the citizens’ understanding of the EU (e.g. 30 % of Slovenian participants indicated that their understanding of the EU very increased).

Recommendations to policymakers on strategies and methodology on smart use of eDemocracy tools as answer to negative impact caused by fake news.

51269 people reached indirectly during project dissemination activities.

Partners

• ManaBalss.lv (Latvia)
• EUROPEUM (Czech Republic)
• KohoVolit.eu (Belgium)
• Estonian Cooperation Assembly (Estonia)
• Institute for Electronic Participation - INePA (Slovenia)
• Democratie Ouverte (France)
• SciFY (Greece)

Project ID

Partners: ManaBalss.lv (Latvia), EUROPEUM (Czech Republic), KohoVolit.eu (Belgium), Estonian Cooperation Assembly (Estonia), Institute for Electronic Participation - INePA (Slovenia), Democratie Ouverte (France), SciFY (Greece)

Duration: 09/2018-12/2019

Funding: Project "Smart eDemocracy Against Fake News - SMARTeD" has been funded with the support of the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union (ID: 601576) and co-funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia

Project website: https://smartedemocracy.org/