Irekia: Open government im Baskenland

Es gibt Neuigkeiten aus dem Baskenland. Die Seite Ireka ist ein Projekt der baskischen Regierung und ein Versuch die öffentliche Verwaltung offen, transparent und partizipativ zu gestalten. Das sieht erstmal sehr viel versprechend aus! Ein Problem hier in Europa scheinen tatsächlich die vielen Sprechen zu sein, so bekommt man von interessanten Initiativen und Entwicklungen in unseren Nachbarländern manchmal erst spät und nur durch Zufall mit.

Um die Sichtbarkeit und den Austausch dieser Projekte auch über sprachliche Hürden hinweg zu verbessern wurde das Projekt ourdata.eu gegründet. Dort findet man Initiativen und Open Government / Open Data Projekte aus vielen europäischen Ländern. Auf Initiative der Open Knowledge Foundation beginnt in der Arbeitsgruppe ”EU Opendata” derzeit eine Debatte und Vernetzung zu Opengovernment Projekten in der EU. Auf der Seite über Irekia steht:

Why has IREKIA been created?

One of the commonest problems of public government is the lack of adequate communications channels with members of the public. The relationship between the public and the government has been confined to exercising the right to vote once every four years. However, the public has many things it would like to say to the government on each of the remaining 1400 days, approximately, before the next general elections come round. The concept of open government derives from just such a need, a new form of contact which establishes a series of direct communications channels between the public and the government, thanks to the new utilities offered today through the Internet.

The Open Government of the Basque Country, Irekia, has been created in accordance with this fundamental idea. It is based on an initiative to bring our government closer to the public by providing our citizens with the chance to take part in the control, participation and decision-making processes of the government. The aim is to make each individual feel part of the government and its policies. The ultimate aim is to make the fundamental principle of democracy a reality: govern with the participation of society as a whole. This is the way to cultural change; traditional roles are modified and our citizens cease to be mere passive agents, the receivers of messages. They become active agents, involved in the decisions that affect them, that are important to them and in which they can take part efficiently, easily and at all times.

Irekia is a global project of the Basque Government, instigated by the Lehendakari, PatxiLopez, who has led this cultural revolution within the Basque public administration, with the aim of making government more transparent and in which the opinion of our citizens is truly relevant.

The 3 premises of IREKIA

The Irekia project is based on 3 fundamental principles.

1. Transparency. The government will provide members of the public with real-timeinformation and data on its activities, plans and intentions.

2. Participation. All laws, decrees, measures and other kinds of decisions taken by the government can be debated, assessed, criticised and modified (even before they are drawn up) with the opinions of our citizens. Contributions may be made to measures promoted by the government but the public will also be able to make their own proposals which can also be discussed and analysed by everyone.

3. Collaboration. The Basque Government wishes to collaborate with its citizens, companies, NGOs and other Basque administrations, providing all of them with innovating tools and new methods of working in collaboration. We will listen to them and work together with them to build a better connected society.