DG CONNECT's Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

How do we ensure that public policy represents
the interests of all, rather than a select few?
How will we ensure it draws upon the best insights
and talents of key stakeholders? The European
Commission's DG CONNECT recently announced
the results of its Stakeholder Engagement Survey,
which is designed to 'provide empirical results
and feedback about existing practices and signal
gaps and challenges for action in the area of
stakeholder engagement.' (Directorate-General
for Communications Networks, Content and
Technology, Stakeholders Unit D4, 2013, p.4). The
survey launched a new round of reflection on the
Commission's relations with its stakeholders by
asking respondents to reflect on the way in which
they interact with DG CONNECT. The strategic
objective is to see how ICTs can be used in novel
ways to enhance support for policymaking from
stakeholders in the EU. The Stakeholder Engagement
Survey makes a start at answering critical questions
about use of ICT as a tool to build 'smarter policy' as
part of DG CONNECT's wider step toward defining
a strategy for stakeholder engagement. This IES
Policy Brief welcomes this current work-in-progress,
and outlines some of the challenges that may await
the European Commission as it seeks to exploit the
full potential of ICT in stakeholder engagement. It
provides an initial analysis of the results of this first
Stakeholder Engagement Survey, and concludes that
whilst many things have changed with regards to
tools that policymakers can use to elicit input into
policymaking, certain challenges have remained
very much the same.