The Institute for Electronic Participation, a non-governmental organisation with public interest status in the field of information society development, has sent an open letter to the European Commission highlighting the lack of respect for the principles of public participation in the process of adopting the National strategic roadmap for the Digital Decade. Also, none of 35 contributions and 2 additional measures suggested by the civil society organisations were included into the adopted National strategic roadmap.
The open letter to the European Commission outlines the shortcomings of the public consultation, including the short timeframe for public consultation on the draft strategic plan, the limitation of stakeholder consultation to an online presentation, and the adoption of the final text of the National strategic roadmap without prior publication of the government’s response to comments from the interested public.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation also did not take into account any of the 35 civil society comments related to the activities and actions in the National strategic roadmap, as well as two additional proposals to promote the digital transformation of the NGO sector and the improved and more advanced use of digital tools in democratic processes.
During the public hearing of the draft, the Ministry refused to participate in a workshop organized by civil society, which was intended to deliberate and prepare comments and suggestions from interested individuals and civil society organisations on the draft national strategic roadmap.
The National strategic roadmap for the Digital Decade submitted to the European Commission lacks actions and activities to achieve a transparent, open, fair, balanced and green digital transition for Slovenia. The Institute for e-Participation considers that the plan is therefore not in line with the recommendations of the Civil Society Convention on the Future of Europe concerning digital transformation.
The open letter to the Commission of the European Union can be found below together with related documents.