Boost democratic participation in cities to recharge democracy in Europe

ongoing

There is a need to empower cities and civil society to defend democracy, protect EU values and build a sustainable future. Urban areas are where the potential for innovation lies to solve global challenges, creating the ground to recharge democracy. To take up the challenges aiming at guaranteeing the access to human rights for every citizen, cities need more and better data, and above all good monitoring and assessment instruments. This proposal aims at developing a practical monitoring tool respecting the political priorities and the hierarchy of challenges for each city. That is why “Boosting democratic participation in cities to recharge democracy in Europe” (DeCiDE) project envisage the co-creation, the piloting and the standardisation of a unique monitoring system supporting the development of human rights cities with a meaningful engagement of the citizens. The process respects the concrete context of cities but also their specificities, and is based on an innovative coproduction methodology involving the political city leadership, the city administration and its civil society. The new form of urban governance will ensure a link between citizens' engagement in practice and the policymaking process from the local to the EU level. The project will provide a monitoring tool to support the implementation of human rights and EU values at the local level that currently the EU is missing; it will produce a standardised monitoring mechanism with a democratic and inclusive participatory approach endorsed by ten cities, from minimum five EU countries. By doing so, DeCiDe project will not only increase the number of cities using and implementing the standardised monitoring system, but also contribute to translate the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into practices within the ten EU cities; thus reinforcing a transnational network of human rights cities and promoting transnational partnerships and network involving citizens and underrepresented communities at large.