Governing with the citizen NICOSIA

Session 2 Governing with the citizen: using SMART technologies to fight municipal corruption Organised by

In cooperation with

Date & Time: Thursday 21 April, 9.30-11.00 Room: TBC Theme: Business, Technology & Innovation (B, T & I) Format: Workshop Description: A new Europe of global challenges All the world governments gathered in the UN approved in September 2015 the new global agenda for development 2030, including a set of priorities in the form of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with the objective of ending poverty and to guide our model towards a more sustainable development. As indicated by SDG 16, achieving this new agenda will not be possible without capable, efficient and more transparent public institutions.

The SDGs, for the first time, are global, to be implemented by all countries, and more importantly, have been conceived to be implemented locally, putting local government in the front line for its success.

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Within this new challenging context, European cities and regions have the opportunity and the responsibility to contribute to the global agenda, in a particular historical moment when, as the closest level of government, citizens are demanding them increasing efficiency and accountability to respond to increasing challenges, both global and local.

Towards more transparent and accountable local governments According to the EU Anti-corruption Report of 2014, corruption keeps being one of the big challenges in Europe, costing the European economy around 120 billion euros per year.

Transparency International indicates that although the situation across contexts differs, no single country comes out with a completely clean profile, while all European countries have serious deficits in their anti-corruption frameworks 1.

It is often perceived that local decision-making suffer from a high risk of being captured by special interests. This perception needs to be changed and actions are urgently needed to ensure that the systems to hold local public officials and institutions to account are effective and adequate. On the other end, as decentralization has helped strengthen accountability and participation by bringing government closer to the people, the local level offers also a higher opportunity for the engagement and direct oversight from the citizen and the civil society over local spending and performance.

Many European mayors and governors are making great efforts to establish a culture of openness and efficiency in the management of their cities. Many other local governments still need support to address the challenges posed by new types of governance and citizens’ involvement in the public sphere. As the people are exposed to increased amount of information and the will to participate is fortunately growing across Europe, governing without the citizen has become (nearly) impossible nowadays.

The session will try to identify responses to the following question: How can SMART technologies help local governments to fight corruption and empower active citizenship?

The discussion will also contribute to the overarching work of CEMR in reinforcing active participation of citizens and guaranteeing transparent, efficient and democratic governance structures of its members by exploring better ways to engage constituencies and make local governments more accountable.

1

Money, politics and power: corruption risk in Europe, 2012 - Across the region, despite reluctance among politicians to prioritize the issue, there is growing concern among the general public that corruption is on the rise. Transparency International’s 2010/11 Global Corruption Barometer revealed that the majority of Europeans felt corruption was on the increase in their countries. A 2012 Eurobarometer poll shows that this concern has not disappeared, with 74 per cent of Europeans stating that corruption is a major problem in their country.

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Speakers: First segment: Governing with the citizen: the challenges and opportunities for European local government (9.30 – 10.00h) 1) Kyriakos Hadjittophis, Mayor of Ayios Athanasios (Cyprus) 2) City from Romania 3) Representative of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces Q & A with the public (10 – 10.15) Second segment: the use of SMART technologies for transparency in municipal management. Practical experiences and the way forward (10.15 – 10.45) 4) Valentina Rigamonti, Senior Regional Coordinator for Europe, Transparency International 5) Diana Lopez Caramazana, Head of the Local Government Unit, UN-Habitat.

Q & A with the public (10.45 – 11h) Languages foreseen: English, French, Greek +1 Contacts: 1) Diana Lopez, UN-Habitat (diana.lopew@unhabitat.org; @dianitalop) 2) Cédric Flin, Policy Adviser - Local and Regional Public Services Management, CEMR (cedric.flin@ccre-cemr.org) 

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