Engaging citizens in Cohesion policy: Spanish project to involve local communities in the sustainable development of their city

We are proud to present one of the beneficiaries of the grants for engaging citizens for good governance of EU cohesion policy. The project selected comes from Spain and includes a set of innovative online and offline actions that will empower and enable the people from the city of Ferrol to take an active role on the design and implementation of European investments in sustainable urban development. The aim is to activate at least 1000 citizens to help local authorities to decide the destination of the funds from the European Regional Development Fund. 

Francisco Xosé Sequeiro Allegue, the project coordinator from Xeración said: 

“Many local institutions fear to engage citizens on the co-decision of city investments. It’s a vicious circle that creates a lot of mistrust. On one side, decision-makers believe that voters are just able to complain and propose unrealistic solutions for the city issues. On the other side, citizens see institutions as a place where few powerful people take decisions just according to their interests. To break this circle we need to explore innovative approaches. We, the third sector, can help set the ground to bring both sides together.” 

The project was selected following an open call for expression of interest earlier this year. It is part of a broader action announced by the Commission at a High-Level Conference on the issue of Engaging Citizens for Good Governance in Cohesion Policy on 6 February 2020 to move one step forward in promoting citizens participation. In a complementary action, five national and regional programmes are receiving targeted support from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to improve their participatory processes. 

Francisco also explained the main features of the project: “We'll tackle citizens' disaffection towards the processes that shape the future of the city. Our project includes a set of innovative online and offline actions that will enable people from Ferrol to take an active role on the design and implementation of EU investments. By creating channels of communication and spaces to debate we intend to increase the level of public engagement at the same time we ensure the social effectiveness of such interventions.“