Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-01-28

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] EU's eMPOWER program partners hold first meeting in Athens

[01] EU's eMPOWER program partners hold first meeting in Athens

The eMPOWER program meets the need for expanding how and to what degree informatics and the Internet can contribute to the creation of a more participational system of governance by supporting two-way information and mutual-influencing of citiziens and MPs/MEPs on environmental matters.

This pilot program will run to end-2010 and is being held simultaneously in four EU member states: Greece, Italy, Portugal and Belgium. it is co-funded by the European Commission in the framework of the European thematic eParticipation initiative.

The partners from Greece are the Athens Technological Center informatics company, the Athens News Agency (ANA-MPA), the National Technical University (Metsovion Polytechnic) of Athens, and the NGO MedSOS.

The project eMPOWER aims to motivate and strengthen the involvement of NGOs and citizens in the decision-making process on environmental issues at a National and European level by providing methods and tools for supporting citizens' participation to promote relevant public initiatives and demands of civil society.

The project brings together three environmental organizations (MedSOS, Circolo Festambiente, Liga para a Proteccao da Natureza) and three News Agencies {Athens News Agency (ANA), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) & Agencia de Noticias de Portugal (LUSA)} from Greece, Italy, and Portugal, respectively, as well as the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and the not-for-profit POLITECH Institute of Belgium which specializes in research in e-governance issues.

The project is coordinated by Athens Technology Center S.A (http:www.atc.gr), an IT company based in Athens, Greece. The project began on Jan. 1, 2009 and will run for 2 years.

The program's partners, as a group, possess the required knowhow to apply technologically innovative ideas and proposals on the environment that will arise from society and NGOs, and through the three national news agencies will contribute to their greater dissemination to the wider public.

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