Exchange of experience on citizen participation: Sarajevo and Vienna in dialogue

On 30 September 2024, sustainable development representatives of the City of Sarajevo met with an expert for citizen participation and a representative from the Municipal Department 20 - Energy Planning (MA 20) for an online city-workshop, to discuss innovative citizen participation models. The workshop focused on a concept called "Citizen's Assembly" - a participatory approach, which actively includes citizens in decision-making processes.

In the end of July 2024, the City of Sarajevo celebrated an important milestone for their participation in the "Net Zero Cities" project by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and has subsequently launched the "Net Zero Citizen Assembly". This citizen assembly is the first of its kind in the Western Balkan countries.

The director of the sustainable development department and assistant to the mayor of the City of Sarajevo reported on the preparations for the first Citizen Assembly, planned to start in February 2025. Together with her team, the Canton of Sarajevo and the city of East Sarajevo, she will organize this citizen assembly on climate topics. Citizens from 4,000 households have been invited to discuss 6 central subjects of climate politics and will receive additional input and information on the subjects from a team of experts.

Vienna's wide selection of participatory formats

In this context, the expert from the Vienna Municipal Department for Energy Planning reported on her experience with citizen participation formats and emphasized the benefit of these formats, as these also include the opinion of citizens that are not entitled to vote. Through the implementation of digital tools and multilingual services, the City of Vienna aims at facilitating the inclusion of all citizens in the participatory process. Furthermore, she reported on additional citizen participation formats aside from the citizen’s councils, which allow the City of Vienna to engage in interactive ways with its citizens for a more inclusive administration of the city.

These include, among others, projects like the "Grätzloase" ("neighbourhood oasis", public spaces all over the city, provided by the City of Vienna and conceptualized with help of its citizens as green spaces and recreational areas) or smartphone apps, which are directly connected to the "Bürger*innenservice", Vienna's citizen’s service department.

The city workshop offered a valuable opportunity for an intensive exchange of ideas and concepts, during which Sarajevo was able to profit from the experiences of the City of Vienna on the implementation of participatory projects. The City of Sarajevo has stated, that it wants to inform the Viennese representatives on the developments and achievements of the Citizens assembly.