U@MARENOSTRUM Project Final results

The Consortium of the U@MARENOSTRUM project is announcing the end of the project. The project was specifically designed in the guidelines of the eParticipation Call for Proposals 2008 and was co-funded by the European Commission. The project was developed between 1st of January 2009- 31st of March 2011 by cooperation of the following entities: GFI Benelux (Belgium), Gov2u (Greece), The Region of Ionian Islands (Greece), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research– Greece, Foundation Comunidad Valenciana - Región Europea (Spain), and Directorate General for Modernization of Valencia (Spain).

U@MARENOSTRUM aimed to facilitate the development of an online dialogue between citizens and official representatives of the participating regions (Ionian Islands Region in Greece and the Valencia Region in Spain ) on issues regarding water protection and management in the Mediterranean . The main objective of U@MARENOSTRUM was to contribute in the enhancement of citizens’ engagement with the political process via their active participation in the online dialogue.

eParticipation Results

The online discussion between citizens and public authorities of the participating regions was initiated with the launch of the platforms. The Greek platform hosted by Ionian Islands Region was launched on January 2010, while the Spanish platformhosted by the Valencia Region on April 2010.

With the end of the project in March 2011 the U@MARENOSTRUM final eParticipation results are encouraging and indicate that:

On both platforms 1883 registered users have participated in the Forum with 1313 posted arguments, on 120 environmental topics connected to 21 Public Consultations regarding water protection and management in the Mediterranean .

Moreover, registered users participated in the platform with 228 markers overall on the interactive maps, 1005 electronic signatures overall on the 3 ePetitions hosted on the platforms, 619 answers overall in 6 online surveys, while 22 Electronic Letters have been sent to Officials of Ionian Islands Region by citizen-users.