Coins launches Citizens’ Council to ″inspire the decisions″ of the Lisbon Chamber
It was one of the banners of Carlos Moedas’ campaign to the Lisbon City Council (CML): the creation of an assembly of citizens, representative of the Lisbon population and which the social democrat believes to be a form of more people’s intention in politics. Today, National Participation Day, the municipality will officially launch this project, called the Citizens’ Council.
“It’s a different and innovative way of doing things, in which we listen to citizens’ ideas and proposals to inspire CML’s decisions. We want change in Lisbon to come from people. And for that we need to work with people”, explains Carlos Coins to the DN. “The Citizens’ Council is an unprecedented initiative in Portugal, but which is already being carried out in other cities such as Madrid or Paris. It is a common exercise in countries such as Belgium, Holland, Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada or the United States. The Commission itself this methodology recently in the debate on the Future of Europe. We cannot be afraid to innovate in the way we do politics.
This Citizens’ Council is open to all people over 16 years of age who live or work in the municipality of Lisbon, and can register at any time to participate in a session. According to the data that the DN had access to, “the participants chosen by lot”, who obey “criteria of age, sex, frequency of residence or work and level of education, in order to mirror the population of Lisbon”. The draw is carried out from a composting database with all valid registrations made through official channels, which will result from completing the form available online, in the composting data boards at Lojas Lisboa.
The draw will choose 50 people per session, being carried out by the Citizens’ Forum, an independent civil society partner. A will not be remunerated, but the municipality will provide, to those who request it, support to ensure participation in transport.
The Lisbon Chamber intends to hold at least one session per year. The participants of the themes, with a minimum of two weeks in advance, will be different in each meeting. According to the municipality, the major issues will focus on structuring themes for the, such as climate, mobility, hygiene, education, economy or health. For each session, a question is proposed, around which citizens must work, and participants can choose a different approach proposed.
“The involvement of the selected participants must be a maximum of two, from 9 am to 7 pm, on the weekend, which corresponds to a working session of the Citizens’ Council. complementary work, will constitute a moderate working group that will contribute to the implementation in the Municipal Council of Proposals”, explains the municipality, adding that the work of this independent assembly will be organized and will be implemented by independent entities.
Exists to serve the city
Like meeting proposals, which were streamed from the CML, Coins that can be delivered by citizens to Carlos. The autoarchy undertakes to implement the results of the initiative, as well as to “proceed with the proposals” and “communicate the progress made”.
They want to work with them. So it’s time for politicians to listen to the people. more adapted to people’s needs. The Citizens Council actually started a larger dialogue with the president of the CML. DN
The executive makes it very clear that this is “an initiative of deliberative democracy and, as such, it is complementary to the elected institutions, which are the only natural and official representatives of the population of Lisbon, such as Parish Councils, the City Council and the Assembly Municipal”.