Further to the first successful session, held in December and dedicated to the use of platforms in Participatory Budgeting activities, the EIP-SCC ‘Citizen Focus’ Action Cluster hosted the second PB webinar to discuss the role of local Administrations in enabling initiatives and activities related to the aforesaid.
The webinar was held on March 14 and provided more than 30 participants with the opportunity to learn about the practical organisation of a Participatory Budgeting activity in an urban context, the complexity of which has increased over recent years as a result of the growing digitisation phenomena.
Andrea Halmos, Policy Officer in the e-Government and Trust Unit of DG CONNECT at the European Commission, introduced the webinar by explaining the evolution of processes and activities that led to discussions around the active involvement of citizens in the planning of smart cities. She specifically mentioned the most recently signed Tallinn Declaration and explained the idea of creating a label for cities in order to provide visibility and ensure consistency with the complementary actions on user-centricity at a local level.
Maria Sangiuliano, Action Cluster leader and CEO & co-founder of Smart Venice srl offered an insight into the main activities, goals and objectives of the Citizen Focus Action Cluster. She presented the latest initiative, dedicated to Participatory Budgeting and the upcoming activities for 2018, among which a workshop on a thematic-smart city application of Participatory Budgeting with city representatives actively promoting smart mobility/energy efficiency projects.
Michelangelo Secchi, Research Fellow at the University of Coimbra, introduced the ‘EMPATIA’ project, which he has been coordinating since 2016. Mr. Secchi shared some background information on the popularity of PB along with the criteria to identify and set a Participatory Budgeting process. The second part of his presentation was specifically focused on PB process management.
Jitka Štěpánková, Project Manager at D21, began her presentation by introducing the origins and scope of work of D21. She explained the situation with Participatory Budgeting in the Czech Republic and presented the use cases of Chomutov and Krnov.
Stefania Paolazzi, Project Manager from Urban Center Bologna, explained the Urban Innovation Plan and presented the Laboratori di Quartiere initiative through which Participatory Budgeting was experienced by 6 different areas within Bologna’s neighbourhoods.
In case you have missed the webinar, you may find all presentations and the agenda available below.