Improving the public perception of transparency in the use of EU funds

Improving the public perception of transparency in the use of EU funds was the main goal of the Lithuanian project Jonvabaliai (Fireflies).

The project was centred around an interactive website, hosting a map with projects financed by European Structural Funds. Project managers could, on a voluntarily basis, submit information on their project such as  results, prices, public procurement procedures, company's shareholders, anti-corruption measures, funds management and more. The more information was made public, the more “transparency fireflies” the project would earn.

Since September 2014, more than 630 project managers have joined the initiative following a series of actions which encouraged projects to join. These included an advertising campaign, a contest for municipalities, the possibility to use the initiative’s visual identity, the proposal to join open-project days, the production of road-signs inviting people to visit the projects, as well as a TV-show dedicated to the Fireflies project.

The Fireflies website was visited by 35 500 unique visitors accounting for 140 000 page views and as a result of the project, the proportion of citizens who consider the transparency level on allocation of EU funds’ as “transparent” or “rather transparent” increased from 28% to 50. 9%.

Jonvabaliai (Fireflies) is the "Effective Management" winner of the Regiostars Awards 2016.

More Information on the project Website -  Transparency Initiative Jonvabaliai  Regiostars 2016