Conference “Local Governance Tailored to Citizens – From Open Government to an Active Community” was held

The Conference titled “Local Governance Tailored to Citizens - From Open Government to an Active Community” was held on Friday, 24 April 2026 at the European Parliament Office in Croatia gathering more than 60 representatives of local and regional self-government units, experts, explorers, as well as the CSOs representatives.

Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs (GOfNGOs) organised the Conference within the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative with the goal of encouraging the exchange of experiences and good practices among local governments units in the area of citizen involvement in decision-making processes, with a special emphasis on participatory and deliberative governance models at the local level.
 
Helena Beus, authorised to perform the duties of the Head of the GOfNGOs opened the conference by welcoming all the attendees. She emphasised that these meetings represent a good base for stimulating units of local and regional self-governments in order to additionally open their processes to the citizens - through counselling, participatory budgeting, innovative digital tools and other mechanisms to contribute to the quality of life in the local communities. She also highlighted this Conference is an opportunity for us together reflect on building an administration that is closer to the citizens - the administration that hear, understand and include. That approach is the key for the development of open, democratic and inclusive society.

In her opening speech, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and EU Affairs, Metelko Zgombić, as the president of the Open Government Partnership initiative Council, pointed out the importance of the transparency, citizens’ inclusion, as well as responsible management on the local level with an emphasis on participatory and deliberative decision-making models. She, then, emphasised those approaches build citizens trust and quality of public policies, especially through the tools such as participatory budgeting. She also stressed the local communities have the key role in the development of democratic innovations and strengthening of open government in Croatia.
 
Aleksandra Grubić Jureško, PhD, Deputy Head of the City Office for Local Self-Government, Transport, Communal Affairs, Civil Protection and Security in the City of Zagreb and Hrvoje Kalčiček, Assistant Head for Preparation and Monitoring of EU Digitalisation Projects and Development and Improvement of Processes in the City of Zagreb presented the City of Zagreb activities within the OGP initiative. More specifically, the City of Zagreb has been also participating in the OGP initiative from 2024, as the first unit of local self-government in the Republic of Croatia (RoC). Also, the City of Zagreb was awarded for one of the activities within the Action plan for the OGP initiative implementation on the local level - participatory budgeting, at the 9^th Global summit of the OGP initiative in the fiscal transparency for the region of Europe category.

Kirsi Verkka, Head of Development of the City of Helsinki presented that City experiences in applying of deliberative and participative management model, emphasising the participatory budgeting process Omastadi as an important driver of the open government, which significantly contribute to strengthening of local democracy, as well as citizens’ active involvement in decision-making process.
 
As part of the panel, “What does open government bring to the citizens?” participants had an opportunity to hear and interesting and inspiring discussion by experts who observe the subject from different perspectives - international, scientific and practical.
At the beginning, Sandra Pernar from the OGP initiative addressed the participants, stressing the importance of transparency and citizens’ inclusion in the public administration work. In the continuation, experts from the academic community and practice presented various aspects of participatory management - from the efficiency of public administration and fiscal decentralisation to concrete experiences of cities and European initiatives. Dubravka Jurlina, PhD (Faculty of Economy in Zagreb), Meri Šuman Tolić, PhD (University in Dubrovnik), Marko Ercegović (Association of Cities in the RoC) and Suzana Jašić (Mayor of the City of Pazin) participated in the discussion. They presented academic and practical experiences of the participatory budgeting including challenges of the cities and European initiative. Especially emphasised was the experience of the City of Pazin in the implementation of the participatory budgeting through the project “Pazi(n) proračun (budget)!” and citizens’ involvement in the local decision-making.
 
At the end of the Conference, we turned to concrete examples of participatory practices at the local level, from Croatia and other European countries, which show how the principles of open government can be turned into real models of citizens’ involvement and serve as inspiration for their application in different local environments.
 
The attendees had an opportunity to hear examples of the cities that apply different models of participatory practice. Two projects from Croatia: the Cities of Zadar and Klanjec were funded from the European Union programme Citizens, equality, rights and values (CERV) which purpose is encouraging citizens for active involvement in building inclusive, tolerant and democratic communities.
 
The CERV programme is one of the EU key instruments for strengthening active citizenship, democratic participation and protection of fundamental rights. Through support to projects at the local and international level, CERV directly connects European values with the practice through projects aiming at strengthening active citizenship, as well as encouraging the very essence of the open government - inclusive, informed and active citizens, thereby complementing squarely complementing initiatives such as the OGP.

The Mayor of the City of Klanjec, Zlatko Brlek presented the project “Little, green cities for the big green Europe”. The project “Encouraging the participation of all citizens in reviewing work as inclusive, sustainable and lovely place through art and culture” was presented by Dina Bušić, Head of the Administrative Department for Culture and Sports of the City of Zadar.
 
It is important to look at examples from other European cities, which through innovative models of participation, digital tools and EU projects have been developing new ways of involving citizens in decision-making for understanding the full potential of open government. These international examples show the concrete application in practice of the open government principles - from building trust to effective management of the local development and communities. Therefore, the City of Glasgow representatives (the OGP initiative award winner in 2023) presented theirs participatory practices, while the City of Madrid representatives (often emphasised as one of the most successful local examples of the open government principles implementation), presented the City turned open government into concrete and widely used tools for citizens.
 
We hope the Conference has fulfilled its goal and the participants got a handful of useful information, as well as motivation to include their local and regional self-government units in the OGP initiative and submit their ideas related to civic and democratic participation of citizens to the CERV programme.

Please find the recording of the Conference on the official YouTube GOfNGOs’ channel



 

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