“The Congress is convinced that citizen participation in public decision-making is essential for the effective functioning of democratic institutions. It is one of the key principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, ratified by the 47 member states of the Council of Europe,” said Andreas Kiefer, Secretary General of the Congress, at the opening of the Strasbourg Citizens’ Summit on 14 October 2017. Highlighting the pressures on traditional representative democracy in the light of new forms of deliberative democracy, he welcomed the innovative approach taken by Strasbourg City Council to jointly establish a new Local Democracy Pact with its citizens. “Through this process, Strasbourg is offering its citizens the opportunity to participate in public affairs through instruments such as the participatory budget,” he stated. “Several cities on our continent are experimenting with this method, giving over 8 million citizens the opportunity to be involved with the decision-making process concerning the finances of local authorities,” he added, citing the examples of Rome, Berlin, Paris and Lisbon, along with regions such as the Land North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The Strasbourg Citizens’ Summit was organised as part of European Local Democracy Week, a pan-European initiative co-ordinated by the Congress, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2017.    

Speech
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