Webinar on citizens participation in EU cohesion policy

The municipality of Ramnicu Valcea in cooperation with Fundacia Comunitaria Valcea organised the first ever recorded deliberative process in Romania with the support of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban policy (DG REGIO). Randomly selected citizens in Ramnicu Valcea provided recommendation for improving public transport and reducing traffic congestion in the city in the context of EU funded plan for a transition towards the substantial reduction of CO2 emissions, in line with the EU-wide objective of Net Zero by 2050.

This webinar is an opportunity for beneficiaries of EU cohesion policy, and in particular municipalities, to learn about deliberative processes involving citizens and application of those processes in the context of EU cohesion policy. During the webinar, speakers will share identified challenges in implementing deliberation, solutions found and lessons learned from the citizens jury in Ramnicu Valcea.

The webinar will take place on 25^th September from 10.30am-12.30am EEST (9h30-11h30am CEST). It will be possible to follow either in English or Romanian.

To register please follow this link.

Background

The Citizen Jury of Ramnicu Valcea is part of the pilot initiative “Innovative Implementation of the Partnership Principle in EU cohesion Policy”, a cooperation between DG REGIO, the OECD, and programme authorities, beneficiaries and civil society organisations. The project aims at experimenting and institutionalising  innovative methodologies to involve citizens in policy making, such as deliberative processes, open innovation, participatory budgeting, civic monitoring, applied to an improved management and monitoring of EU funds under cohesion policy. In 2024, 11 pilot projects are taking place across 7 EU member states .

In order to support the EU Member States to improve capacity for management EU funds, DG REGIO is organising a series of training events targeting national and regional authorities responsible for the management of Cohesion policy programmes. Presentation from past REGIO Training on Citizens Participation are available here.

The REGIO Peer2Peer Communities are networks of civil servants from regional and national administrations. They manage EU funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion fund and the Just Transition Fund, and join forces to share knowledge and practices to use the funds more effectively. More information on the REGIO Peer2Peer Communities on Citizen Participation are available here.