This chapter frames the collaboration between the European Commission – Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and the OECD as part of the broader efforts of the two organisations to foster citizen participation in policymaking, specifically in EU Cohesion Policy, at all levels of governance.
Citizen Participation for Better Cohesion Policy
Insights from 11 Pilot Initiatives
Abstract
For more than three decades since the 1989 reform of structural funds, Cohesion Policy has driven social and economic progress across the European Union (EU) through investments tailored to the unique local conditions and structural issues of each region (see Box 1.1). According to a recent report, from the reform of Structural Funds in 1989 until 2023, the EU invested EUR 1,040 billion for this purpose with an additional EUR 392 billion being invested during the 2021-2027 programming period (European Comission, 2024[1]). This budget targets all regions and cities in Europe to deliver on five policy objectives: (1) a more competitive and smarter Europe, (2) a greener, low carbon transitioning towards a net zero carbon economy, (3) a more connected Europe by enhancing mobility, (4) a more social and inclusive Europe, (5) a Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated development of all types of territories (European Comission, 2024[1]). The policy instruments adopted to achieve these objectives are the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund+ (ESF+), the Cohesion Fund and the Just Transition Fund (JTF). Cohesion Policy is coordinated by the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO).
Cohesion Policy is the European Union’s main investment policy to promote economic, social and territorial cohesion across Member States and regions. Its overarching objective is to reduce disparities in development, strengthen the resilience of regions and ensure that all Europeans can benefit from the opportunities of the single market. The legal foundations of Cohesion Policy are set out in Articles 174 to 178 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which mandate the EU to support balanced development, address structural challenges and pay particular attention to rural areas, regions affected by industrial transition and areas with geographic disadvantages.
Implemented through multiannual programmes and shared management between the European Commission and Member States, Cohesion Policy supports long-term investments in innovation, skills, infrastructure, environmental sustainability and social inclusion. It targets all regions and cities in the European Union to support:
1. job creation
2. business competitiveness
3. economic growth
4. sustainable development
5. improvements to citizens’ quality of life
In order to reach these goals and address the diverse development needs in all EU regions, EUR 392 billion (almost a third of the total EU budget) has been set aside for Cohesion Policy for the period 2021-2027.
Since 2020, the OECD and DG REGIO have been working together to provide technical assistance to regional and local authorities to experiment with and institutionalise participatory approaches throughout the Cohesion Policy cycle. This report takes stock of 11 pilots across the European Union to build the case to embed and increase support for participatory Cohesion Policy making.
The OECD and the European Union pursue a shared objective: to promote citizen participation not only to reinforce trust and strengthen democracy, but also to improve the quality and effectiveness of policies and services. In doing so, both institutions support their member countries in ensuring that participatory and deliberative processes are designed to be meaningful and impactful.
Evidence shows that citizens generally have a low awareness of Cohesion Policy and its contribution to local development. According to the 2023 Eurobarometer on awareness and perception of EU regional policy, only a minority of Europeans feel well informed about the investments made in their region. However, when citizens are aware of Cohesion Policy, perceptions are overwhelmingly positive, and support for EU action increases. This signals an important opportunity: participation can act as a bridge between Cohesion Policy and the public, improving understanding of its goals, activities, and tangible results (European Union, 2023[2]).
Cohesion Policy’s multi-level governance structure, administrative complexity, and existing trade-offs among investment choices can lead to slow implementation. Data from the Cohesion Open Data Portal shows persistent gaps between planned and implemented funding across programming periods. Citizen participation can help address these constraints by strengthening collective ownership of decisions, clarifying priorities, and reducing public resistance (European Commission, 2025[3]). Given the financial and political importance of Cohesion Policy, the cost of not engaging citizens meaningfully is high.
Citizens in OECD and EU countries are not simply looking for ‘more’ opportunities to participate in policy making, they want more meaningful participation. They want their voice to be treated as a valuable asset for policymaking and for governments to be accountable for how they use it (OECD, 2023[4]; OECD, 2024[5]). Box 1.2 provides details on OECD and European Commission work on citizen participation.
The OECD definition of citizen and stakeholder participation includes “all the ways in which stakeholders (including citizens) can be involved in the policy cycle and in service design and delivery”. Participation refers to the efforts by public institutions to hear the views, perspectives, and inputs from citizens and stakeholders. Participation allows citizens and stakeholders to influence the activities and decisions of public authorities at different stages of the policy cycle (2022[6]) (OECD, 2017[7]) (OECD, 2024[8]). The OECD distinguishes among three levels of citizen and stakeholder participation, which differ according to the level of involvement from information, consultation to engagement.
Citizen Participation at the core of OECD work on open governance
The OECD has played a longstanding role in fostering dialogue among Member countries to reach a shared understanding of what citizen participation in policy making is and can do. The OECD work on citizen participation is anchored in the Recommendation of the Council on Open Government (2017), the first and only internationally recognised legal instrument in open government. The Recommendation defines open government as a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and growth for all.
As part of its work on open government and citizen participation, the OECD has built a toolbox to explore, promote and guide innovative and meaningful ways to involve the public in decision making. For instance:
OECD Deliberative Democracy Toolbox
OECD Guidelines
Country analysis such as Basque country, Brazil, Ukraine
OECD work on digital democracy includes Emerging Tech Report, Civic Tech and AI.
EU’s Democracy Agenda
Citizen participation is a strategic priority for the European Union. European institutions including the Commission, Parliament and Council have experimented with innovative and more engaging participatory approaches to involve citizens in shaping EU priorities. Between 2021 and 2022, the Commission, together with the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, launched the Conference on the Future of Europe a multi-stage, hybrid process including live sessions and the digital platform for participation future.europa, to gather citizens’ inputs and views on ten topics, ranging from European democracy, to digital transformation. In total, the initiative involved more than 770,000 participants and resulted nearly 19,000 Ideas. The ideas were then condensed into 49 proposals presented to the three mandating institutions on Europe’s day, May 9th, 2022 (European Union, 2022[9]). In addition, the Conference inaugurated the series of European Citizens Panels, EU-wide multilingual deliberative processes involving representative groups of EU citizens to discuss and provide recommendations on the topics surfaced during the online consultation phase. Since 2022, the European Commission organised seven Panels. Each Panel involved around 150 EU citizens over three weekends of deliberative sessions.
The Commission developed legal and regulatory frameworks to support citizen participation and democratic engagement.
In 2023, the European Commission published a Recommendation on the participation of citizens and civil society organisations in public policy-making which calls for structured and transparent frameworks that involve all groups in society and that go beyond electoral cycles and make use of innovative methods such as citizens’ assemblies, panels, and co-creation processes. The Recommendation emphasises the importance of representation—particularly for young people, marginalised groups, and persons with disabilities—while ensuring that civic space remains safe and enabling for civil society organisations and human rights defenders. It also underlines the need for adequate resources, training, and capacity-building for both public administrations and participants to make engagement meaningful and effective. Finally, the Commission commits to supporting Member States through EU-level expertise, tools, and guidance, building on experiences such as the Conference on the Future of Europe.
In 2025, the European Commission published a proposal for a European Democracy Shield, building on the previous European Democracy Action Plan (2020) and the Defence of Democracy Package (2023). The European Democracy Shield outlines a series of actions and initiatives aiming at protecting and reinforcing EU democracy by: (1) reinforcing situational awareness and support response capacity to safeguard the integrity of the information space, (2) strengthening democratic institutions, free and fair elections and free and independent media, (3) boosting societal resilience and citizens’ engagement. The third pillar includes actions to strengthen civic skills and media literacy, organise new Citizen Panels, reinforce institutional capacities for participation at the national level, and improve the digital infrastructure for participation at the EU level.
Engaging citizens is also a concrete pathway to strengthen trust in government. According to the OECD (2024[5]), one of the top three drivers of trust in national government for decision making on complex, long-term, and global policy issues is “political voice” – just after “balancing intergenerational interests” and “evidence-based decision making”. Results of the OECD Trust Survey have demonstrated that providing meaningful opportunities for citizens to voice their opinions is the government action with the highest potential to strengthen citizens’ trust, especially at the local level. In 2024, results show that 69% of those who believe they have a say in government action report high or moderately high levels of trust in the national government, in contrast to only 22% among those who feel they do not have a say. This represents a staggering 47-percentage point gap in trust in national government between those who feel they have a say in government action, and those who do not (OECD, 2024[14]).
This Report aims to showcase the process, results and learnings of the OECD-DG REGIO pilots where participatory approaches were tested in different contexts and for different objectives. Using the pilots as case studies, it will show the versatility of participatory approaches and the observed benefits when applied to Cohesion Policy at the regional and local levels. The pilots generate valuable insights and illustrative practices that can inform, inspire, and support the Cohesion Policy community and public authorities across the EU in advancing their own participatory initiatives. The findings of this report can inform the ongoing reflection on Cohesion Policy beyond 2027 and serve as inspiration for other public authorities across the OECD.
As part of the shared priority to promote participatory approaches and to showcase concrete pathways to improve policies and services, the OECD and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) established a collaboration to improve the implementation of the Partnership Principle by experimenting with new ways of involving the public in the management of cohesion funds. The project “Innovative Implementation of the Partnership Principle in Cohesion Policy” was implemented between 2021 and 2025. A special emphasis was put on the need to strengthen the partnerships between public authorities managing EU funds (i.e., managing authorities, intermediate bodies, and beneficiaries) and civil society organisations (CSOs) in deploying participatory efforts for the implementation of EU Cohesion Policy.
This collaboration had multiple objectives:
Experiment with innovative participatory practices with the aim of scaling and mainstreaming them across authorities responsible for implementation of EU Cohesion Policy instruments.
Equip public administrations with practical knowledge and skills to better involve civil society and citizens when implementing Cohesion Policy and other policies.
Increase awareness among citizens on the role played by the European Union in the development of their territory, as only about 4 in 10 people report having heard about EU co-financed projects to improve the area where they live (European Comission, 2024[1]).
Improve the quality and efficiency of Cohesion Policy at the local level by better understanding citizens’ needs and priorities.
Contribute to the ongoing reform of Cohesion Policy by showing the benefits of the Partnership Principle and extending the involvement of citizens and civil society as partners of Cohesion Policy.
A first phase of this collaboration implemented in 2020 and 2021, consisted in supporting five public authorities in Cantabria (Spain), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Interreg V-A Flanders (Netherlands-Belgium), the Centre for EU Transport Projects (Poland), and Interreg V-A Romania-Bulgaria. The process, outcomes and lessons learned from this first phase were captured in the OECD report “Engaging citizens in the Cohesion Policy: DG REGIO and OECD pilot project final report”, published in March 2022 (OECD, 2022[15]).
Building on the results of these pilots, the OECD and DG REGIO launched a second phase of this collaboration implemented from 2022 to 2025 providing assistance to 11 pilots : Cantabria (Spain), Emilia Romagna (Italy), City of Banská Bystrica (Slovak Republic), CEUTP and GZM Metropolis (Poland), Brussels region (Belgium), Lazio Region (Italy), Normandy Region (France), Municipality of Râmnicu Vâlcea (Romania), Silesia Region (Poland), Catalonia´s Ministry of Finance (Spain), and South-Muntenia Development Agency (Romania). The objective of these pilots was to involve citizens and civil society in designing, implementing, and evaluating Cohesion Policy at the local level. The OECD provided technical and methodological support, encouraging knowledge-sharing among all territories involved. Local project team often included representative of local CSOs specialised in community engagement or in lowering barriers to access public life for underheard or marginalised publics. Figure 1.1 provides an overview of all pilot territories involved in the project.
Source: OECD elaboration.
References
[1] European Comission (2024), Forging A Sustainable Future Together: Cohesion for A Competitive and Inclusive Europe: Report of the High-Level Group on the Future of Cohesion Policy, https://doi.org/10.2776/974536.
[3] European Commission (2025), Cohesion Policy Open Data Portal, https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/cohesion_overview/21-27/#finance-implementation.
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[10] European Commission (2023), Recommendation on the participation of citizens and civil society organisations in public policy-making, https://commission.europa.eu/document/fcb629fe-ca20-4019-b1f6-392c286fdedf_en.
[2] European Union (2023), Citizens’ awareness and perception of EU Regional policy, https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2970.
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[15] OECD (2022), Engaging citizens in cohesion policy: DG REGIO and OECD pilot project final report, OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/486e5a88-en.
[6] OECD (2022), OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/f765caf6-en.
[7] OECD (2017), Recommendation of the Council on Open Government, https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0438.