Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasingly becoming more pervasive of peoples lives, both for individual and collective usage. Hence, it becomes tempting to develop electronic tools that can constitute alternatives to enhance citizenship, in particular tools that can be used in the context of societal debates of public policies.

This report explores the conditions to deploying electronic based public participation methodologies and online ICT based participatory processes within public policy processes. It reflects on the challenges, promises and motivations of using ICT to promote dialogue and deliberation among institutions and the civil society.

It consists in part of a revision of the techniques and tools commonly used in electronic public participation processes, referring to case studies where these techniques and tools were employed. Special attention was given to cases where the outcome from the public participation process supported a decision process.

The conditions of deployment of e-participation processes in public policy formulation were framed within the concept of quality, specifically in the concept of ¿fitness for purpose¿. An electronic tool was designed and implemented, not only featuring dialogue components, but also collaborative ones, as response to some of the identified challenges.

Based on the review of e-participation tools and the preliminary usage of the tool developed, a protocol for quality assurance of e-participation tools is offered.JRC.G.9-Econometrics and statistical support to antifrau