The winner of the first Local Citizen Engagement- ELDA (European Local Democracy Action) Award is the project “Our Compass is Digital Participation!” submitted by the municipality of Nilüfer in Türkiye.

The winner was revealed at a gala award ceremony organised by Innovation in Politics Awards (IPA) on 30 October 2026 in Cascais, Portugal, the European Capital of Democracy 2026. The award was handed over by Marcin Golazewski (Poland, EPP/CCE), Spokesperson on ELDA of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, and councillor of the municipality of Łódź.

The ELDA Award has become one of the eight IPA categories for the first time this year, following the conclusion of a partnership between the Congress and the European Capital of Democracy (ECoD) last January.

The aim of the ELDA Award is to promote citizen participation at the local level and thus improve trust in local democracy. It encourages cities and regions as well as national associations of local and regional authorities to implement projects and initiative that involve their citizens in a sustainable and efficient manner into the life and decision-making processes of their communities.

In many municipalities however, participation mechanisms remain limited by physical constraints and unequal access, leaving large parts of the community unheard. Nilüfer's project tackled this directly by digitally transforming its existing Neighbourhood Committees model.

This project was chosen by a Jury made of 1000 European citizens. Nine other projects were also finalists in the ELDA Category and were invited to the event in Cascais where they received a finalist certificate.

The finalists in all the categories also met before the Award Ceremony during a two-hour round table discussion with more than 200 participants where they could share and discuss their projects and encourage others to implement them at their level.

The candidatures for the 2027 ELDA Award will soon be opened on the ELDA website.