Active Cities – Active citizens, the project on public consultations at the local and regional level that brought together 5 partners from Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Spain was successfully concluded on the 12th of June 2024 in the beautiful town of Koper, where all partners gathered for one last time, for the closing event organised by ZMOS.
Mayor's adviser, Ms. Mojca Kleva Kekuš, from Urban Municipality of Koper, welcomed the participants noting that Municipality is very pleased the final event is in Koper adding that their employees and all the local participants at the event can learn more about the project and its achievements. Ms. Kleva Kekuš also said that she herself had the opportunity to participate in the project event and the project workshop and she appreciated the new knowledge she acquired from the other partners on good practices which can be used in her further work at the Urban Municipality of Koper.
Ms. Jasna Ratoša from the NGO Pina Cultural Education Association presented -as a keynote speaker- the good practice of involving the citizens in the spatial planning of the former coastal road between the two municipalities of Koper and Izola (Slovenia). Her main recommendation was to follow people's wishes, suggestions and visions in the processes of preparing the regional spatial plans.
Miran Kospenda the Secretary General of ZMOS, noted that for his organisation the participation in this project proved very valuable as in all project events they discovered what other cities are doing in this field and transferred this information back home. It was great to see that so many places are doing their best in engaging their citizens to improve local policies said Mr Kospenda adding that “Our member cities are already doing a lot in terms of fostering participatory approaches, but we can always do more and do it better”. He also mentioned another important added value of the project and CERV financial support - the partnership itself, which he considered as a long-lasting one that will lead to other forms of cooperation between cities, regions and their associations.
Ms. Tessy Melidi, from Regiocop LTD presented then the final delivery of the project: A short but comprehensive handbook that can be used as a step-by-step guide to organise public consultations at the local and regional level. The handbook was developed based on desk research, lessons learnt during the project and case studies from the World, Europe and the partners.
This collective effort will remain available online as the legacy of the project and its contribution to the effort of reinforcing citizens engagement into local and regional policymaking.
The presentation was followed by short interventions from all the partners who shared their experiences of the project and their main takeaways for the future. It was an emotional moment after 18 months with 10 events that started in Brussels and continued in Kallithea, Budapest, Xativa, Ljubljana, Bucharest and now Koper.
The partners appreciated the extensive discussions of different good practices - civic budgeting, youth engagement, sustainable mobility, urban regeneration, and NGO participation and more. But also the opportunity they had to also understand better the difficulties and problems in citizens' engagement in local policymaking. They compared methodological approaches, legislations, administrative procedures, cultural approaches, and budgetary restrictions.
And in this process, they used different training methods to understand how partners work, invited experts to share their views, and visited NGOs, administrations, and town halls, places where citizens actually meet and interact with local policymakers.
But -as Vassiliki Tzoumaka from the Municipality of Kallithea pointed out – “the most important gain of our project is the value of our partnership, the days we spent together, the hospitality of all the partners, this unique atmosphere of a project that is closing without one dispute, just great memories and will to continue working together”.
Closing the event and the project the vice Mayor of Kallithea who was the Lead Partner, Ioannis Emirzas underlined the need citizens and local authorities to work together to improve the quality of local and European Democracy. “We fight and we will continue fighting for a Europe that is close to the citizens and their needs. Projects like the Active cities -active citizens bring us closer, fight stereotypes, and cooperate for a common goal: A Europe that leaves no one behind. This is the Europe we need”.
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