Open Declaration on European Public Services

A group of citizens have launched an open collaborative effort to build an Open Declaration on European Public Services, which calls on European governments to embrace the values of transparency, participation and empowerment and so improve public services.

The European Commission and the Swedish Presidency of the EU have accepted that the declaration be presented in the official programme of the 5th ministerial e-government conference in Malmo on Nov 20 2009.

The organisers are seeking to attract 2000 endorsements before Nov 19. As of Nov 5, 741 people have endorsed it, so still need at least 1259 needed.

One of the top arguments for supporting is perhaps "We won't be able to meet the biggest challenges we face such as climate change if governments have to do it all on their own."

This can also be seen as an opportunity to say "Yes, but all of this applies very much also to local government and local civic society", but of course its easier to make this argument if people who are actually working on local stuff are willing to support it.

* endorse the Open Declaration on Public Services in the European Union here before November 19, 2009:

* watch / listen via youtube