A review of the European Union eParticipation action pilot projects

Purpose -As the society has long ago left the "industrial age" and entered the "information age", people, enterprises and above all decision makers are constantly trying to get the best out of the opportunities and the technologies offered, for facilitating their life and their work. One of the most active and promising domains nowadays, is eParticipation, which is actively promoted by all stakeholders, as there is a great need of reconnecting citizens with the decision makers and re-engaging them into the democratic procedures, especially as during the last years this gap is expanding, with the most convincing proof being the huge figure of voter turnout during the latest European elections. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach -Areview of the most active and well-known eParticipation action pilot projects funded in the European Union is presented, alongside with a methodological framework that has been followed for mapping, assessing and evaluating those projects, using a beyond the state-of-the-art classification method. Findings -Conclusions of the performed work are in a position to outline the current status quo of eParticipation in Europe, highlighting lessons learned and opportunities for future activities and research. Originality/value -This paper includes valuable information towards practitioners, decision makers and administration officials, based not only on the established knowledge and on the experiences gained, but also on the identified gaps of the domain, aiming to support them in understanding the status quo of the domain and in the design process of future research roadmaps for eGovernace and policy modelling.