2024 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

18th Edition

Phase 6 of 7

Publication Preparation 08/09/2024 - 15/10/2024

Process phases

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Dudelange: a pioneering city for citizen participation in Luxembourg: the case of the participatory budget

Official proposal

14/05/2024 17:44

The fourth largest city in Luxembourg, Dudelange aspires to sustainable urban and socio-economic development, following an eventful history marked by industrial ups and downs, the success of the metallurgy and steel industries in the 19-20th centuries, but also their decline in the following century and the need for renewal and diversification. Against this backdrop, Dudelange has become a pioneer in promoting open institutions through a dynamic citizen engagement strategy, becoming an open-air laboratory for participatory practices.

With foreigners accounting for over 40% of the local population (more than 100 nationalities represented), who are generally poorly integrated into Luxembourg electoral politics, Dudelange quickly realised the need to provide them with alternative means of integrating into the community and making their voices heard. To encourage exchanges between the municipal authorities and citizens living in the town, three participatory institutions with a permanent vocation finally emerged after around ten years of experimentation. The Biergerpanel is a voluntary panel of residents who are invited to respond twice a year to an online questionnaire on local public policy issues. The Biergerrot aims to give a group of randomly selected citizens representing the diversity of the population the opportunity to reflect on the management of a specific public policy issue. Finally, Dudelange is the first municipality in Luxembourg to have introduced a participatory budget. This innovative practice has since been emulated by other Luxembourg municipalities. In addition, Dudelange is the only Luxembourg municipality to have a full-time resource person in charge of citizen participation within the administration.

The aim of the participatory budget is to enable residents of Dudelange to submit, discuss and vote on projects to improve their living environment, which fall within the scope of municipal powers (environment, town planning, mobility, culture, etc.). In this way, Dudelange gives its citizens direct influence over public policies relating to these issues. Dudelange has also entered into a partnership with the University of Luxembourg to evaluate and monitor the process.