The Basque Government shows its model of Open Government close to citizens at an international summit

• The director of Open Government, Miren Martiarena, highlights the consolidation of inter-institutional collaboration of the Basque model of government close to citizens
• This week, the representative of the Basque Executive participated in the World Open Government Summit (OGP) in Estonia, together with representatives from more than 70 countries

This week, the Director of Open Government, Department of Public Governance and Self-Government, participated in the Open Governance Partnership (OGP) Global Summit 2023 held in Tallinn, Estonia. In her speeches, Miren Martiarena highlighted the importance of “inter-institutional collaboration together with citizens to create a common model of close open government.”

In recent years, through the OGP Euskadi project, “we have made progress in the multilevel relationship between local administrations, those closest to citizenship, and the administration at the country level.” This model, based on the Auzolana, “generates trust and strengthens inter-institutional relations and relationships with people.” During the summit, Martiarena will share experiences with senior officials and ministers from places such as the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Norway, Albania and the United States and representatives of the OECD, and international civil society organizations.

This eighth summit brings together around 2,000 people from more than 70 member countries of the Open Government Partnership, as well as civil society and academic groups to discuss open government in the digital age, the potential of technology to make governance and policymaking more transparent and accountable, and the preservation of democracy.

Last Tuesday the representative of the Basque Executive also had the opportunity to learn about the Open Government experiences of the city of Tallinn from its mayor, Mihhail Kõlvart. During the meeting, in a round table, Martiarena stressed the importance of Auzolana in the Basque Country also in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals and presented the Government's NOW 2030 proposal to the attendees.

OPEN GOVERMENT PARTNERSHIP (OGP)

The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative that seeks to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, train citizens, fight corruption and take advantage of new technologies to strengthen governance.

The OGP was formally launched in 2011 during a meeting of the UN General Assembly. Currently, it includes 75 countries and 104 local governments, representing more than two billion people, and thousands of civil society organizations in order to evaluate and develop mechanisms to promote “governments that are more open, accountable and sensitive to citizens”.  In 2018, the OGP selected the Basque Country as one of the 20 regions around the world participating in its programme.