Council of Europe (CAHDE)
The Ad hoc Committee on E-Democracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) was established by decision of the Committee of Ministers of 24 May 2006 and started its work on 23 and 24 September 2006. CAHDE is primarily an intergovernmental body, whose members are delegated by the 46 Member States of the Council of Europe, and by relevant international organisations (eg EU, OSCE).
The Austrian chair of the CAHDE, whose work was completed at the end of the year 2008, Thomas M. Buchsbaum, on this website provides information on the work and thinking of this committee, to the interested public. He can be contacted at thomas.buchsbaum(at)bmeia.gv.at.
The first plenary meeting of CAHDE was held on 23 and 24 September 2006 at the seat of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (France). The meeting report is available.
In order to structure, co-ordinate and advance CAHDE work between its plenary meetings, an Informal Working Group (IWG) of CAHDE was established and held its first meeting on 13 and 14 December 2006 in Vienna (Austria), see annotated agenda. The chair established a brief summary of the outcome of the meeting. (For more details on the room documents, please click 'Working Documents' at the left-hand side part of this page.)
In the framework of CAHDE, a public symposium on E-Democracy was held in Strasbourg (France), on 23 and 24 April 2007 at the seat of the Council of Europe, with the topic of 'E-democracy: new opportunities for enhancing civic participation'. More information - including its programme, a background document and abstracts of presentations - is available at the CoE Website on democracy issues. The Chair of CAHDE delivered the introduction, and the general rapporteur a closing summary. The final report by the general rapporteur is also available.
The second meeting of the Informal Working Group (IWG) was held in Strasbourg on 25 April 2007. Please find here the agenda and the outcome of the meeting. For details on the working documents of the meeting, of which the 'Framework for reporting e-democracy initiatives' was adopted as CAHDE document, please click 'Working Documents' at the left-hand side part of this page.)
The third, 2007 Council of Europe Forum for the Future of Democracy, which was held in Stockholm (Sweden) and Sigtuna (Sweden) from 13 to 15 June 2007 on the theme of 'Power and empowerment - the interdependence of democracy and human rights'. One of its break-out session was, in Sigtuna on 14 June 2007, devoted to the topic of 'eDemocracy - key role in facilitating and strengthening democratic processes?' and moderated by the CAHDE chair. A presentation including summary by the moderator and a summary by the rapporteur are available.
Other Sigtuna documents include an advance issues paper by Professor Lawrence Pratchett on 'Revolution or Reinforcement? The scope for e-democracy in Europe' , and presentations on 'Challenges and barriers of eParticipation in Europe?' by Professor Ann Macintosh, 'e-Democracy - Opportunities and Problems' by Kristoforos Korakas, 'eDemocracy and democracy: Which are the ways forward?' by John Gøtze, and 'Interactive Democracy between e-government and e-participation' by Professor Miranda Brugi.
The third meeting of the Informal Working Group (IWG) was held in Sofia on 2 and 3 July 2007. The agenda, draft annotated agenda and outcome of the meeting are available here.
The following documents were agreed at the Sofia meeting:
For other working documents of the meeting, please click 'Working Documents' at the left-hand side of this page.
The second CAHDE plenary meeting was held in Strasbourg on 8 and 9 October 2007. A list of CAHDE work items can be downloaded here. The annotated draft agenda and the outcome of the meeting are available here. (The official documents can also be downloaded from the CoE website.)
The following documents were agreed at the second CAHDE plenary:
For other working documents of the meeting, please click 'Working Documents' at the left-hand side of this page.
The fourth meeting of the Informal Working Group (IWG) was held in Vienna (Austria) on 13 and 14 December 2007. The draft agenda, annotated draft agenda, logistics information for participants and outcome of the meeting are available here.
The following document found consensus at the Vienna IWG meeting 2007:
'eParticipation and Democracy: Evaluation dimensions and approaches' (Georg Aichholzer, Ulrike Kozeluh), CAHDE (2007) - presentation
For more room documents, please click 'Working Documents' at the left-hand side part of this page.
The day before the IWG Vienna meeting, on Wednesday, 12 December 2007, a workshop on eParliament was held at the Austrian Parliament, on 'Comprehensive eParliament - of service to elected representatives and citizens'. For more details, please refer to the sub-site 'eParliament' accessible via the navigation link at the left hand side of this page.
The fifth meeting of the Informal Working Group (IWG) was held in London (United Kingdom) on 26 and 27 February 2008. The agenda, annoted agenda and outcome of the meeting are available here.
For more room documents, please click 'Working Documents' at the left-hand side part of this page.
Immediately after the fifth meeting of the IWG and the framework of the international e-participation symposium on 'Empowering Citizens thought Technology and Participation' CAHDE held a panel on 'Regulating Democracy: What preparations are being made for regualtion in Europe?' The collected slides of the presentations as well as the concluding remarks are available.
The third CAHDE plenary meeting was held in Strasbourg on 20 and 21 May 2008. The agenda and outcome of the meeting are available here. The annex/tool 2 - A Set of Generic e-Democracy Tools (long version) -and the annex/tool 6 - technical glossary - were accepted as working versions. For more room documents, please click 'Working Documents' at the left-hand side part of this page.
From 15 to 17 October 2008, the Council of Europe's annual Forum for the Future of Democracy (FFD), held in Madrid, was exclusively devoted to e-democracy. Details are available at the CoE FFD Website. CAHDE's input - through its chair - was the chairing of workshop 1 on 'Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for participatory democracy', where the CAHDE draft Recommendation was presented and discussed by the interested public, made up of politicians, academics and national and international public servants. Furthermore, the CAHDE chair presented a paper on 'Regulation of e-democracy:
An introduction' in workshop 6 ('International and regulatory context'), where CAHDE member Professor Lasse Berntzen acted as rapporteur.
The sixth meeting of the Informal Working Group (IWG) was held in Madrid (Spain) on Friday, 17 October 2008, and devoted to the fine-tuning of the Draft Recommendation on e-democracy (version: August 2008), including in the light of the Forum for the Future of Democracy.
The forth (and last) CAHDE plenary meeting was held in Strasbourg on 13 and 14 November 2008 and devoted to the discussion and adoption of the Draft Recommendation on e-democracy and to the discussion on future CoE activities in the field of e-democracy. The agenda is available here.
Parts - "guides" - of the draft Recommendation pre-agreed at previous meetings are the following: no.2 / a roadmap approach towards e-democracy; no.3 / a checklist for the introduction of e-democracy tools; no.4 / a framework for reporting e-democracy initiatives; and no.5 / dimensions and approaches for the evaluation of e-democracy.
The meeting ADOTPED the Draft Recommendation Rec(2008)X of the Committee of Ministers to member states on electronic democracy (e-democracy) - text as adopted - introduced by the chair - introduction - , and Recommendations to the Committee of Ministers on possible further action in the field of e-democracy - text available soon - and was closed by concluding remarks by the chair.
All texts submitted to the Committee of Ministers are available.
The 'Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on electronic democracy (e-democracy)' was adopted by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on 18 February 2009.
Please find here a first description of the development and contents of the Recommendation as well as an analytical description of the novel features of the CoE recommendation on e-democracy.
The website was last revised on 6 October 2009
