DELEGATIONS FROM FIVE COUNTRIES IN SANTA MARIA DA FEIRA TO DISCUSS PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
Edited on
07 June 2022Delegations from France, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Estonia and Portugal attended a transnational meeting held in Santa Maria da Feira, on December 15th and 16th, as part of the Active Citizens project, integrated in the European program URBACT. For two days, 22 members from partner cities discussed strategies and methodologies to promote effective participatory democracy in their communities and shared actions to be taken in the coming years.
The working meetings took place mostly at Europarque, with members from the cities of Agen (France), Cento (Italy), Dinslaken (Germany), Hradec Kralové (Czech Republic), Santa Maria da Feira (Portugal) and Tartu (Estonia), as well as URBACT representatives of the Directorate-General for Territory and CCDR-N, with the participation, via Zoom, of members from the French city of Saint Quentin and the Romanian city of Bistrita. There were two days dedicated to rethinking the place of citizens in local governance, in a balance between representative democracy and participatory democracy, with the presentation of concrete actions to be carried out in each of the partner cities. Members of Feira de projects like Children Assembly, Young Mayor and Local Group URBACT were also invited to participate in a moment of debate and reflection, held on December 15, in the Salão Nobre dos Paços do Concelho, with the presence of the Mayor, Emídio Sousa. On the last day of the meeting, December 16, the mayor of Feira received the ambassador of the Czech Republic, Petr Selepa, at the Presidency's office, at the Europarque Congress Centre.
It is recalled that, within the scope of the European project Active Citizens, 8 transnational online and 5 face-to-face meetings have already been held (Agen, Cento, Tartu, Saint Quentin and Santa Maria da Feira), 4 training moments, 10 meetings of the Local URBACT Group and 2 small-scale actions, with the involvement of Feira citizens: the first, carried out in July, in the parish of Caldas de S. Jorge; and the second, carried out in October, in the urban park of Santa Maria da Feira.
2022 already welcomed new transnational meetings Bistrita, Romania (January - online TNM), Germany (March), Czech Republic (May). Agen, France (June) will welcome the final TNM of the project.
The methodology of the Active Citizens project is based on the co-creation between policy makers, municipal technicians, public and private entities and citizens, from the identification of the problem to its resolution, with a view to the sustainable and attractive development of the territories. The local group of Santa Maria da Feira assumes itself as an urban laboratory of experimental environment, which aims to plan and carry out small-scale actions with the people of Feira, valuing and nurturing the talent and contributions of all for a sustainable and inclusive development of its City.
Led by the French city of Agen and financed by the URBACT program (85 percent ERDF contribution), Active Citizens is made up of a network of eight small and medium-sized European cities – Santa Maria da Feira (Portugal), Bistrita (Romania), Cento (Italy), Dinslaken (Germany), Hradec Kralové (Czech Republic), Saint Quetin (France) and Tartu (Estonia) – created to help address the challenges of local governance, in particular the promotion of participatory democracy.
Submitted by Barbara Gautherie on