Romania joins the Deliberative Wave
The Citizen Jury on Urban Mobility organised by the city of Râmnicu Vâlcea was supported by the technical assistance of the OECD Open Governance Unit thanks to the European Commission — DG REGIO.
Involving citizens to achieve the objective of a “greener, carbon free Europe”
The city of Râmnicu Vâlcea in Romania is conducting efforts in transitioning towards the substantial reduction of CO2 emissions, in line with the EU-wide objective of Net Zero by 2050. Râmnicu Vâlcea plans to invest 32 million euro in the local sustainable urban mobility plan in the upcoming coming years. These efforts are supported by EU Cohesion Policy, for example, the city renewed its entire bus fleet thanks to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), one of the investment instruments of Cohesion Policy.
Despite these efforts, the share of citizens using public transportation remains low, while traffic congestion and its consequences on air quality and street safety persist.
The city decided to adopt a different approach: involve residents to shape urban mobility. To do so, Râmnicu Vâlcea’s Local Development Department, responsible for the implementation of EU-funded projects, partnered with the civil society organisation Valcea Community Foundation to organise the first representative deliberative process in Romania.
The Citizen Jury on Urban Mobility
A Citizen Jury is an example of a representative deliberative processes, in which a group of people, selected to be representative of the broader community, comes together to spend adequate time to learn, deliberate, and provide recommendations on a given policy issue. The OECD has collected and classified almost 800 cases and elaborated a Deliberative Toolbox to guide public institutions.
In Râmnicu Vâlcea, 2000 invitation letters signed by the Mayor were sent to random households selected through the address database across the city, covering all neighborhoods. Then, the city hall performed a random selection among the citizens who had manifested their interest in participating to the Jury. This random selection was stratified according to gender, age group and current transportation habits to better represent the diversity of the city. The civic lottery was live-streamed to ensure transparency and fairness.
The 20 selected participants became part of the Citizen Jury task to respond to the question: What measures could the Municipality of Râmnicu Vâlcea take to increase the attractiveness of public transport and other sustainable modes of transport?
The Jurors met six times between March and April 2024, either on Saturdays or in the late afternoon of weekdays. The Valcea Community Foundation, together with the organisation H.appy Cities, facilitated the meetings by structuring various formats of activities aimed at learning, discussing and deliberating on the different aspects of urban mobility.
In the learning phase, the Jurors met with civil servants from the city hall, transport and sustainable mobility experts, as well as community representatives to learn more about urban mobility policies and get inspired by meaningful examples from other cities.
In the discussion phase, the Jurors established guiding principles to orient the drafting of more concrete recommendations. They divided the guiding principles in five macro-areas: nature, behavioral change, public transport, alternative transport and infrastructure. The Jury agreed on the adoption of guiding principles such as “nature comes first, (transport) infrastructure second” or “priority to pedestrians”.
In the deliberation phase, the Jurors agreed on a set of 24 recommendations following the guiding principles and grouped them in the five categories. The recommendations cover different kinds of action, spanning from the establishment of “no construction zones” to preserve green areas, to increase the availability of bike lanes, to better communicate on available mobility options, etc.
The Jurors presented their recommendations to the City Council on May 8, 2024.
Closing the feedback loop and moving to implementation
On June 27, 2024, Ramnicu Valcea hosted the closing event of the Citizen Jury in the presence of the jurors, local and national authorities, the OECD and DG REGIO. Jurors received a diploma for their participation and emphasized three key messages:
- Agency: they expressed gratitude for the opportunity to join the Jury, shape their city, and be taken seriously. One member stated, “I never thought I would be here, in the City Council Room one day. I feel very honored to be part of this process.”
- Hope: The room was filled with high expectations, as citizens voiced their hope that this time their voices would truly be heard. One juror highlighted that “this is a civic duty, and everyone should be able to do it”. These high hopes place significant responsibility on the Municipality to ensure accountability and provide feedback to the Jury.
- Future: Participants spoke about future generations and the importance of planning ahead to make their city a better place for their children and grandchildren.
At the time when we write, the departments of the city are analysing the Jury’s recommendations to verify their feasibility. The city will establish an implementation roadmap of all the feasible recommendations based on three levels of priority: 1 (actions that do not require additional budget or that can be implemented in one year), 2 (actions that require budget and that can be implemented in the medium term), and 3 (actions that will need to be integrated into the next programing period or that require long term change). The jurors and the city council will reconvene year from now to communicate on the progress.
Lessons learned
The first deliberative process in Romania was confronted to significant obstacles due to its pilot nature but provide valuable lessons.
- Most processes rely on champions: the organisation of this pilot was possible because of personal commitment from municipal civil servants and civil society organisations.
- International organisations can provide a safe space to experiment: the presence of the OECD and the European Commission was instrumental to convince and reassure elected councilors and the Mayor.
- It is important to take the electoral calendar into account: Local elections added a layer of complexity to ensure commitment and accountability. Finally, the Mayor was re-elected and renewed his endorsement to the project by also posting on his social media, including TikTok.
- There is a vacuum in terms of legal support to organise deliberative processes: the absence of a legal framework imposed the City Council to pass an ad hoc resolution in order to give the Jury a formal mandate to deliberate on urban mobility in the city.
- Deliberation is not always expensive: the resources available for the project were limited but proves that deliberation can also happen in contexts where the available resources are limited.
- Deliberative processes have a direct positive impact on participants: the attitude of jurors evolved throughout the process: their initial skepticism gradually shifted to the pride of having had the chance to actively contribute in shaping local policies.
The multiplier effect of this pilot is promising. The OECD and the European Commission will disseminate this experimentation with Romanian public authorities and share template documents that can help other interested authorities organize a deliberative process (letter, city resolution, agendas, diplomas, etc.).
