Specific projects in Spain
Main activities:
- Public Ethics Benchmarking (PEB)
- Local Finance Benchmarking (LFB)
- European Label of Governance’s Excellence (ELOGE) in the Basque Country
In 2014, a PEB project was implemented in co-operation with the Association of Basque local authorities (EUDEL) in the Basque region. In 2015, the Association also implemented a LFB project with five pilot municipalities. The results were presented at a special workshop in November, and the feedback from the municipalities and local experts was very positive. This experience was shared with the participants of the Programatic Cooperation Framework project who visited Bilbao on a study trip. Another very interesting outcome of the project was an LFB web application developed for the EUDEL by local experts. The English version of the application will be shared with other countries, associations, and think tanks interested in LFB, including the Eastern Partnership countries.
The EUDEL expressed its interest in continuing co-operation with the Centre, especially on the Leadership Academy Programme (LAP) and the European Label of Governance’s Excellence (ELoGE).
The Centre was also contacted by the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia, which requested assistance on PEB, in co-operation with the local government association.
The standard toolkit was simplified producing a Basque version of the toolkit with 80 items, focusing on five areas: principles of local finances, taxes and fees, financing capital budget, budget planning, budget implementation and supervision. The LFB toolkit survey was implemented in five municipalities of the Bizkaia region: Basauri, Bilbao, Ermua, Galdakao and Getxo, The adaptation and the piloting was coordinated by a management team comprising of the experts and the representatives of the beneficiary municipalities. The participating cities received a specific report with their own scores and a summary report was delivered with the average scores.
- Local government system in the Basque Country
- Local government finances in the Basque Country
- Local Finance Benchmarking Toolkit adaptation in the Basque Country (+ Spanish version)
- Local Finance Benchmarking Toolkit scores in the pilots (+ Spanish version)
- Local finance benchmarking summary report (+ Spanish version)
- Local Finance Benchmark: the Basque Approach
Award Ceremony concluding the first round of ELoGE in the Region of Murcia
European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) Award Ceremony in the Basque Country (Spain)
Study visit to Bilbao on Improving financial management through Local Finance Benchmarking
The first analysis at the piloting stage took place in three cities with different characteristics: Galdakao - municipality located in the metropolitan area of Bilbao with nearly of 30,000 inhabitants, Santander - the maritime capital city of Cantabria and has 177,123 inhabitants, and Valladolid - the regional capital of Castile and Leon, an inner city with 309,714 inhabitants. One important conclusion after performing the LFB is that the recommendations arising from the report are to be agreed with each municipality, thus establishing tangible and achievable goals for improvements. A formal presentation of the results of the LFB to the municipal officials and the Mayor will ensure the commitment for the implementation of LFB recommendations.
