Commission’s Kroes invites citizens to rank visions of future
European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes is inviting EU citizens to join a voting and ranking process on 11 visions of what the world could look like within the next 40 years.
The Commission is seeking views on living, learning, leisure, and working in Europe in 2050 to help steer long-term policy and research planning. The visions have been gathered over the past 12 months through Futurium, an online debate platform that allows policy makers to consult and collaborate with citizens. Students, entrepreneurs, philosophers and academics have participated in the consultation, which has also included events around Europe.
Eleven over-arching themes have been drawn together from more than 200 ideas for the future. Robert Madelin, director general of DG CONNECT in the European Commission, commented: “This approach works, it is a tried and tested and good value investment. I invite all decision-making bodies, from town councils to national governments, to adopt tools like the Futurium. These will allow them to better engage with their stakeholders and build evidence for future policy choices. Knowledge harnessed locally could then be cross-fertilised to better inform policy-making at all levels”.
Citizens can begin voting from today on the Futurium website. The voting process runs until the end of November 2013. The visions for the future will be featured at the ICT 2013 conference in Vilnius, Lithuania on Friday.
