During the panel discussion on “Open government going local: why is this a turning point?” at the 5th Open Government Partnership (OGP) Summit, Vladimir PREBILIČ (Slovenia, SOC), emphasised that “open government cannot be achieved without a bottom-up approach and that there will be no success if its implementation fails locally. It must go together with decentralisation, within a framework where national governments establish a constant dialogue with regional and local authorities, following the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government”.
He was supported by Anthony BUCHANAN (United Kingdom), member of the Governance Committee, who underlined the role of the Congress in promoting the key elements of open government: transparency, citizen participation and accountability. He also highlighted that “trust is earned through openness and transparency of the governments, especially those on local level”.
Moreover, the Summit was the opportunity to network and discuss conceptual aspects, as well as very practical approaches on ways to prevent corruption through transparency, on the actions for gender responsive open government and on achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through open government.
The participation to the 5th Open Government Partnership Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia, is organised in the framework of the project “Strengthening democracy and building trust at local level in Ukraine”, implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities as part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021. The project aims to improve the quality of local democracy in Ukraine by strengthening institutional frameworks and by supporting local authorities and their national associations in their efforts to promote ethical decision-making and more citizen-oriented, responsive and transparent local governance.
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Contacts:
Marité Moras, Head of Unit, Co-operation and External Relations Department, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Tel: +33 3 88 41 22 33
Svitlana Gryshchenko, Project Manager, Council of Europe Office in Kyiv, Tel: +380 96 340 13 83
