{"id":456123,"date":"2026-06-09T17:41:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/09\/il-digitale-e-lintelligenza-artificiale-come-mezzi-per-avvicinare-istituzioni-e-cittadini\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T18:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:19:27","slug":"digital-ai-citizens-institutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/09\/digital-ai-citizens-institutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital technology and artificial intelligence as a means of bringing institutions and citizens closer together"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 How can democratic participation be fostered in the digital age?\u00a0For many years, the European institutions have sought to bridge the gap between themselves and citizens\u00a0<\/strong>through public consultations, information-rich websites, and various\u00a0<\/strong>conferences. According to\u00a0STOA<\/a>, the European Parliament body dedicated to the assessment of scientific and technological options, that gap, however, is still very wide. A viable path forward could come from the world of digital technology and artificial intelligence. Today (9 June), STOA organised a meeting to discuss this and to explore how democracy and digital technology can move forward together.<\/p>\n

“The time has come to understand how artificial intelligence can help citizens understand decision-making processes<\/strong>\u2014said\u00a0Brando Benifei<\/strong>, S&D MEP and co-rapporteur for the AI Act in the previous parliamentary term\u2014and how it can help institutions to better understand citizens<\/strong>.\u201d Today more than ever, Benifei continued, \u201cwe need concrete action at European level. The digital sector is dominated by large companies\u201d that are focused on profits, but \u201cthe EU must consider how to capitalise on this favourable moment to get closer to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

“If we truly wish to ‘improve civic participation'” pointed out Bj\u00f8rn Bedsted, international director of\u00a0DemocracyX<\/i>,\u00a0we must not forget that institutional conditions are far more important than technological tools<\/strong>.\u201d Peter Mechels, project lead at Fedivariety, shares this view:\u00a0<\/b>\u201cEven if the problem with platforms were resolved, technology is not the bottleneck. What is missing is institutional commitment, the political will to give citizens\u2019 contributions a genuine mandate, to close the feedback loop so that people see their contributions translated into decisions.\u00a0Without this, even the best civic tech platform becomes just another form of democratic theatre<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course,” Bedsted pointed out, “digital tools can play their part. Among the recommendations of the research on the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence to promote citizen participation in the European Union\u2019s decision-making processes,\u201d he explained, \u201cis the proposal to involve people at the various stages of the public policy cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The importance of engagement was emphasised by\u00a0Marco Cappato, president and founder of\u00a0<\/strong>Eumans<\/a><\/strong>. In the participatory process, \u201cknowledge is also power: if the public knows what is being discussed, it is more difficult for those in power to ignore the issue,\u201d he explained. Cappato also pushed for further digitalisation, making use of existing tools. By way of example, he described the bureaucratic difficulties associated with collecting signatures for euthanasia in Italy\u2014which must be collected on paper and in the presence of a public official\u2014which clash with the reality of digital signatures. The conclusion is clear: “If the technology of democracy is unable to modernise itself through digitalisation, it will become useless.”<\/p>\n

In conclusion, Benifei outlined the direction he believes we should take. “There are new developments on our continent: the European Parliament is succeeding in putting in place frameworks to protect citizens from risks, but also to build trust.” The aim, he emphasised, is to make it clear that “digital technology and AI can be useful tools, with positive aspects and not just flaws<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the European Parliament\u2019s STOA unit, there is still a long way to go, and digital tools and artificial intelligence can help bridge that gap. Benifei (PD): \u201cThe time has come to understand how artificial intelligence can help citizens understand decision-making processes and how it can help institutions better understand citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7911,"featured_media":456098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788,25710],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","category-net-tech-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456123"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456130,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456123\/revisions\/456130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}