On 6 October, in a Congress-led event organised in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) on the eve of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit, the participants discussed local open government initiatives, highlighting deliberative forms of citizen participation and good democratic governance, as a contribution to the New Democratic Pact for Europe at local and regional levels.

Local leaders from the cities of Donostia-San Sebastián (Euskadi, Spain), Pazin (Croatia) and Strasbourg (France) shared their experiences of using the European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) benchmarking process to foster democratic participation, transparency and accountability. Ranka Šepić from Pazin stressed in particular that “the process of evaluating our practices based on the Council of Europe standards helped us identify how we can formalise and embed good democratic governance in our city, so that participation is truly inclusive.”

In a second event organised with the regional government of Catalonia (Spain), the Congress drew attention to the experiences of Mostar and Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) as well as Slavutych and Zviahel (Ukraine) in organising citizens’ assemblies focused on concrete improvements to local service delivery, public spaces and local development. In the discussion, participants highlighted the strong potential of citizen deliberations to offer new insights and solutions for public decision making, in particular for situations where important trade-offs or budget constraints are concerned.

The Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is supporting local open government initiatives as part of its projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and Kosovo*.

ELoGE is awarded to municipalities which can demonstrate that they have achieved a high level of good democratic governance. By October 2025, 436 local authorities in 21 countries have received the label. ELoGE helps local and regional authorities improve their governance, through a self-assessment tool in the form of a comprehensive European Good Democratic Governance Benchmark and a series of questionnaires aimed at citizens, elected representatives, and local officials. ELoGE is based on Recommendation CM/Rec(2023)5 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the principles of good democratic governance, and its explanatory memorandum.