Vasco Cordeiro sets two-million Euro target for the Region's Participatory Budget
The President of the Government highlighted the growing adherence of the Azoreans to the Participatory Budget of the Azores (OP Açores), which the Government intends to enhance by increasing the financial resources and the areas where citizens can present their projects.
“OP Açores is a good exercise of citizenship and citizen involvement in the definition of the proposals that will be implemented through public resources. We must continue growing in the future in terms of resources, with about two million Euros allocated to the Participatory Budget, as well as in terms of the number of supported areas,” stressed Vasco Cordeiro.
The President of the Government spoke at the presentation session of this year's edition of OP Açores with an appropriation of 1.2 million Euros and six thematic areas - Environment, Science, Culture, Social Inclusion, Youth and Tourism - two more than the initial editions.
to him, there has been a “growing and significant adherence” of Azorean citizens to this tool aimed at promoting participatory democracy. In 2018, the year of the first edition, 228 ideas were presented, while in 2019, the figure rose to half a thousand of ideas.
As regards the voting on projects, there was also an increase from 5,000 votes in 2018 to more than 12,000 in 2019, Vasco Cordeiro stressed, ensuring that the Regional Government wants to keep up with this growing interest in OP Açores.
At the beginning of this third edition, which took place in Ponta Delgada, Vasco Cordeiro highlighted that the basic idea of OP Açores concerns with the fact that it enables Autonomy to be also a means of strengthening Democracy in the Region.
"But we are not talking about a manifestation of Democracy that takes place in opposition to what is the most traditional form of decision in the allocation of public resources, which is made by the decisions taken by the Regional Legislative Assembly," stressed the President of the Government.
“These are different ways of exercising Democracy. When our Parliament decides on the allocation of public resources, it decides on the exercise of a representative democracy. In the case of the Participatory Budget, it is a more direct way, calling citizens for this decision. There is no such thing as better democracy. There are, basically, two ways of exercising Democracy in the Region,” said the President of the Government.
The Participatory budget of the Azores comprises two main phases: the presentation of preliminary proposals and the voting of proposals.
The presentation phase of the draft proposals takes place between February and April. They may be presented in person at the Participatory Meetings to take place in the 19 municipalities of the Azores or submitted online at the OP Açores electronic platform https://op.azores.gov.pt/.
The voting phase takes place between July 1 and September 15. Citizens may vote at the OP Açores electronic platform or by sending a free text message.