Ramnicu Valcea's first civic lottery and citizens' jury

Our most important event linked to the ELDW’s leading theme took place between 22 and 23 March 2023 at the City Hall of Ramnicu Valcea, where a delegation from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was in Ramnicu Valcea for the implementation of the Municipality’s pilot project ”Partnership for Cohesion Policy” and the preparation of the first ”Jury of Citizens” in Ramnicu Valcea. According to the project, the specialists of the General Directorate for Urban and Regional Policy of the European Commission provides technical assistance to the Municipality Ramnicu Valcea that is supported in this project by the Valcea Community Foundation in the mission of promoting the European Union’s cohesion policy objectives among the local community (in particular the ”a greener, carbon-free Europe” objective). Within the project, the local authority aims to identify, together with representatives of non-governmental organizations and citizens, the best solutions for increasing the number of users of local public transportation system at the expense of those who use their personal cars. In this regard, the Municipality of Ramnicu Valcea together with the Valcea Community Foundation and the Association H.appy Cities, with the support of experts from the Department for Open Government and Civic Space of the OECD will put into practice the first ”Jury of the citizens” in Romania - a deliberative process through which the inhabitants of Ramnicu Valcea, selected randomly, will learn, debate and after that will deliberate and suggest recommendations on the development of public transportation. Among representatives of the local NGOs, the event benefited from the presence of the City Manager of the Municipality, Mr. Eusebiu Veteleanu, of the deputy-prefect of Valcea County, Ms. Florina Calin, the Public Manager of the Valcea County, Mr. Adrian Mihaila as well as of the representative of the Open Governance Department of the General Secretariat of the Romanian Government, Mr. Laurentiu Mazilu. The “Partnership for Cohesion Policy” project is the most important event of the 2023 edition of the Municipality of Ramnicu Valcea, with activities organized during the whole year. It is also the most representative for the local authority in respect with the Council of Europe’s values. The project supports citizens’ participation in the local decision making process at the local level and promotes inclusiveness, democracy, freedom of expression, gender equality among the local community members. The Municipality of Ramnicu Valcea organized several other meetings and debates with the NGOs representatives in order to prepare the civic lottery: the Municipality will send at the beginning of 2024, 2000 letters to 2000 addresses, in which will invite the recipients to be part of the first citizens’ jury. The recipients that will choose to be members of the jury will have to give their consent to the Municipality’s representatives who will make a list of the citizens willing to be part of the jury and later on will organize a random draw in order to choose 20 people. The Ramnicu Valcea’s jury of citizens will have 20 members chosen among those who received the letter and gave their consent to be part of it. Also, the City Council of Ramnicu Valcea approved within the Resolution 349/2023 the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Municipality and 2 NGOs for the organization of the citizens’ jury as well as the Rules of procedure for the organization of the civic lottery and the budget to support these 2 actions.