e-Citizens Project pronounced the best project in Europe in the field of "Open Government for the Improvement of Public Services"

At the global summit of the Open Government Partnership initiative, which was held on October 28th 2015 in Mexico City on the subject of “Open Government for the Improvement of Public Services”, the project of the Croatian government called e-Citizens won the first place in Europe.

Mr Joško Klisović, Deputy Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and President of the Open Government Partnership initiative in the Republic of Croatia, received the award on behalf of the Croatian government:

"The Croatian government has made a huge progress in the field of offering quality public service in Europe, for which we received today the first award from the international Open Government Partnership (OPG) initiative. This award presents the international acknowledgment of the Croatian Government’s methodical and committed work on open, transparent and accountable governance, as well as on including the citizens in public policy formulation. At the Initiative’s summit the global experts have placed Croatia among the most successful countries in implementing the OGP’s principles and goals. The Government’s action plan and its implementation have been given the highest ratings, for which I congratulate everyone who are part of this progressive effort. I am convinced that this will motivate us to bring the public governance work to a higher level."
The Republic of Croatia was given this award for its e-Citizens project, which enables modern, simplified and faster communication between citizens and public administration, as well as enhances the public sector transparency in providing public services. The decision on the award winner was made by 23 experts from 19 countries and various sectors.  

Being the most successful in the quality and implementation of the Action plan, as well as having the winning project in Europe, the Republic of Croatia has reached the top of this ambitious campaign, while the Croatian Government has been recognized as the one which respects the criteria of openness, transparency and engagement as the foundations of modern democracy in the 21^st century.

Such success is possible only with a committed process of consultations and cooperation with citizens, civil society and experts, which is at the core of the Open Government Partnership methodology, and which was also adopted by the Croatian Government as the core of its relationship with the citizens, and promoted as the best practice model at the world level.
The Open Government Partnership is a unique international initiative, which promotes reforms through the cooperation between governments and civil society with the aim of ensuring more open and accountable governance. The Initiative was started by the US president Barrack Obama in 2011 on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly opening, and today it includes 66 participating countries.

The Republic of Croatia became a member country in 2011, and currently it is the only participating country which has met 100% of the process requirements for both Action plans (according to the data collected by the independent experts who monitor the Initiative’s implementation), and it has the largest number of actions in the highest quality category of all 66 participating countries (according to the database on measures and actions).
 
The award ceremony can be seen on the following link: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/.

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