The webinar “yoUThILIZE e-democracy” was held on Monday, June 8, via the ZOOM platform. It was attended by participants from all around Europe who got a chance to start the discussion about the ways youth participation can be promoted and incited by using innovative digital tools, platforms and technologies on the local level. Examples of good practices were shared and discussed by participants and speakers.

Three speakers took part in the webinar and introduced participants into different aspects of youth participation. Mantas Jurgutis, deputy mayor of the city of Kaunas in Lithuania, stressed how important it is for the decision makers to actively work on motivating and supporting young people to participate by developing new mechanisms and platforms that would be implemented in local communities. Cristina Martinez, president of the Youth Council of the Spanish town of Quart de Poblet, suggested that youth participation should become a part of national laws, so that politicians don’t ignore young people when proposing and lobbying for policies. And finally, Ivan Despotović, president of CSO Libero from Serbia, clarified the difference between e-democracy and e-participation, as these two terms are incorrectly used as synonyms.

The webinar was interactive and participants were able to ask the speakers for clarifications and explanations. At the end, free brochures and guides for inciting youth participation were shared with participants.