Brussels, 02/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Roger Briesch, will be involved in an on-line debate on 3 March between 16H-18H on the subject of participatory democracy. The aim of this exchange is to look at the perspectives for civil dialogue in the context of sustainable reform of the processes for the participation of organisations from civil society in the formulation of the Union's policies and decisions. Participants will be able to pose their questions in English and French. Complete transcripts of the questions and answers will be available on: (http: //http://www.esc.eu.eu.int/president/chat/index_en.asp ).
The EESC will be organising a conference on 8-9 March in Brussels on the same theme, with the participation of Irish minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche and the president of the study and research group, "Our Europe", the former president of the European Commission, Jacques Delors (EUROPE 18 February p 18).