The Report of the World e-Parliament Conference 2008 is now available.

The World e-Parliament Conference 2008 took place at the European Parliament in Brussels on 25 and 26 November 2008. The Conference was co-organized by the European Parliament and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, a joint initiative of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and a core group of partners, established in 2006 to promote the role of parliaments in advancing the Information Society goals as well as the effective use of ICT for the modernization of parliamentary processes.

The World e-Parliament Conference 2008 represented a unique opportunity for leaders and members of parliaments, parliamentary officials and experts to exchange views at a global level on new technologies and innovation as tools to strengthen the representative, legislative and oversight functions of regional and national assemblies.

The Conference was built on the results of the World e-Parliament Conference 2007, held in Geneva in October 2007, and on the outcome of the World e-Parliament Report 2008, the first publication on this topic issued by the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament on 28 February 2008.

The World e-Parliament Conference was aimed at parliamentarians, Secretaries General, parliamentary staff and officials of national and regional parliaments, experts from international organizations and academicians who work and deal with information and communication technologies as instruments to improve and modernize parliamentary business and citizens’ participation in public decision-making processes.

Around 400 participants took part in the general debate and parallel tracks forming the World e-Parliament Conference 2008 to enrich the discussion around the challenges and benefits provided by the daily use of ICT and the analysis of successful approaches, good practices and lessons learned. Selected presentations were delivered by renowned experts and parliamentary officials to showcase cutting edge solutions and case studies.

At the World e-Parliament Conference 2008, the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament and its partners presented and launched tools and concrete outputs developed in the past year to help parliaments assess and benchmark their technological level and/or adopt new technologies in the parliamentary environment.

A number of key organizations, institutions and universities are joined the co-organizers to support the organization of the event.

The Conference could be followed live via webstreaming.

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