Fuelling the public debate by systematic onlining of public texts before and after their adoption

Orientation of proposal

Legislative texts and rulings by local, national and supranational authorities, as well as budgetary items should be onlined with the option of downloading. This onlining, which is already systematic in certain countries for texts adopted by some administrations and legislative bodies, requires additional work of organising the information in question to make it accessible and understandable by the greatest number of people.

Above all, it is the orientations of proposals of the texts (draft, orientation of proposal for laws, directives, municipal rulings, etc.) that should be systematically onlined to permit citizens to become aware, debate and even build an alternative.

Context

Although some administrations (cf. the efforts of the French government in this direction) have made considerable efforts to online their documents intended for the public, this effort should be systematic to ensure transparency and better information for citizens, especially regarding budgets. However, this information must be correctly organised and supplied with adapted search engines, etc.

As for the publication of texts before their adoption, the rare French experiences regarding this subject, such as the debating of a law on information corporations, should be generalised.

Posté le 4 octobre 2002

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