Digital Democracies: At the intersection between technology, democracy and rights in the EU

ongoing

DigiDem-EU is a cross-cutting effort to integrate the democratic challenges of the digital transformation in CIDOB’s current work on the European Union. DigDem-EU project aims to analyse, discuss, and build citizens’ understanding and awareness on how technology impacts the EU’s democracy, politics, civic engagement, and citizens’ rights. CIDOB already has European integration, EU debates and EU fundamental rights as its main areas of study, knowledge, and dissemination, but DigiDem-EU will enhance the connection between the existing working areas of CIDOB and the new challenges of digital transformations for our democracies. The project builds on CIDOB’s recent work in the analysis of the spread of disinformation during Covid-19 crisis and its impact on human rights, as well as on our previous experience with participatory projects, and fostering knowledge sharing, expert and public debates. With CERV programme, DigiDem-EU will enhance our work on disinformation, and on innovative democratic approaches and tools to promote citizens participation; it will consider how new digital rights emerging from the digitalisation process impact fundamental rights and technological governance; it will engage with citizens and communities to promote discussions on climate change and the green deal’s transformative power, the digital divides, and the European elections in 2024 among others. In doing so, the project will be contributing to citizens’ understanding of EU’s political challenges, promoting citizens’ rights, and protecting the Union, always combating any form of discrimination. The final aim is to contribute in building democratic resilience in the EU through our research, dissemination and engagement work. These objectives will be developed through four different kinds of activities: annual conferences, capacity building seminars, awareness-raising interviews or lectures, and publications.