Empowering Participatory Budgeting in the Baltic Sea Region (EmPaci)

A majority of the BSR areas is characterized by largely fragmented living areas of their inhabitants. This leads to challenges for public authorities and councils when it comes to involving all citizens into joint projects and to discuss relevant issues with all citizen groups. Instruments are needed that enable and encourage the entire citizenry to take part in decisions of their municipality such as decisions regarding expenditures and revenues in the local budget.

 

Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic decision-making in which ordinary people take part in preparing and adopting a municipal or public budget. In the Baltic Sea region, only a few municipalities have applied participatory budgeting to date. A typical type of citizen in such a process is male, politically active, well-educated, and 35-65 years old. The objective of EmPaci is to get more municipalities involved and mobilise different types of citizens by building municipal capacities, transnational clusters and municipality-citizen cooperation.

  

Title

Empowering Participatory Budgeting in the Baltic Sea Region

Abbreviation

EmPaci
Lead partner
 University of Rostock (DE)
Programme Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014 - 2020

Partners
  • City of Bützow (DE)
  • Pferdemarktquartier, registered non-profit association (DE)
  • Public Institution Klaipėda Universit (LT)
  • Rietavas Municipality Administration (LT)
  • Public Institution Rietavas Tourism and Business Information Centre (LT)
  • "DELETED" Universität Rostock (DE)
  • Vidzemes Planning Region (LV)
  • Social innovation centre (LV)
  • Regional Development Agency in Bielsko-Biała (PL)
  • Baltic Institute for Regional and European Concern BISER (PL)
  • Telšiai District Municipality Administration (LT)
  • University of Tampere (FI)
  • Lahti University of Applied Sciences (FI)

Associates
  • Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (FI)
  • Telsiai district local action group (LT)
  • Union of the Baltic Cities (PL)

Objective

To get more municipalities involved and mobilize different types of citizens via building municipal capacities, transnational clusters and cooperation among municipalities and their citizens. The project aims to foster civic acceptance and to build social ties within municipalities, spread the idea of participatory budgeting and the project’s piloted good practices within the BSR.

Activities
  1. Ensuring relevance for citizens: citizens' needs analysis and developing specific communication on participatory budgeting for different citizen groups (e.g. youth, the elderly, families)
  2. Fit of participatory budgeting for different municipalities: Development of general PB concepts and adjustment to specific circumstances through a series of two pilot participatory budgets in each partner municipality
  3. Setting up capacities and disseminating the participatory budgeting idea: all participatory budgeting information, communication methods and materials will be collected and documented in an orgware system for use of participatory budgets later on and also for other municipalities
  4. Training practitioners: setting up a training program for municipalities
  5. Making participatory budgeting work: An IT reference architecture will be developed and tested.

Results

 The main output is building capacities and knowledge as well as strengthening relations between municipalities and citizens by providing ready to use guidelines, training programs and tools to implement participatory budgeting. This creates the foundation of more BSR municipalities to realize participatory budgets and to foster citizen participation against the background of large spatial fragmentation of the BSR citizenry.

Budget

Total – 1 878 640,20 EUR

Vidzeme Planning Region – 110 900 EUR

Implementation

01.01.2019. - 30.06.2021.
Contact person in VPR

Lienīte Priedāja-Klepere, project manager 

E-mail: lienite.priedaja@vidzeme.lv
Project website

http://empaci.eu/