Engagement activities and their impacts on policy development

This deliverable reports on the Horizon 2020 GROW Observatory project activities that are of relevance to policy makers and on the work of the Observatory Policy Interface (OPI), the policy group of GROW tasked to:
- fill the knowledge gaps on the importance of soil for sustainable development and human well-being;
- promote participatory governance on land and water management in Europe by bringing together citizens, growers and policy makers in the development and endorsement of unanimously accepted soil policies;
- bring the data and results of the GROW Initiative to the attention of policy and decision makers, and
- affirm GROW as a successful example of citizen observatory (CO) in the region.

After a short introduction to the history of participatory governance in Europe (Section 2), this report provides an overview on the GROW Observatory’s activities to promote European citizens’ involvement in participatory environmental governance (Section 3). GROW outputs of political relevance are discussed in Section 4. To conclude, Section 5 reports on GROW activities aimed at raising the awareness of European citizens on the tools available to enhance their participation in policy making and at increasing awareness of policy makers on the contribution that citizens can offer to policy development. This section includes the outcomes of the OPI workshop held in Brussels, Belgium on 3 and 4 September 2019.