The Capital Region of Denmark holds a citizens’ summit on the regional development
The Capital Region of Denmark – how should it be developed in the future?
The structural reform in Denmark made the five new regions responsible for composing their own individual development plans based on their visions for their region. On the 17th of November, 2007, the Capital Region invited citizens from its 29 different municipalities to participate in a citizens’ summit in order to hear the citizens’ ideas and suggestions for the content of this first development plan. Three themes stood out; environment, education and traffic.
The Capital Region cooperated with The Danish Board of Technology Foundation on conducting the citizens’ summit in Copenhagen where 167 citizens participated from all over the region, all invited on the basis of coincidence. The politicians of the Regional Council initiated the citizens’ summit, intending to offer citizens the opportunity to articulate their own visions and specific ideas for the future development of the region as a contribution to the politicians’ efforts to write up a regional development plan. The draft is expected to be presented for further debate in March, 2008. In June 2008 the Regional Council is expected to decide on a final development plan for the region. After this, it will be a matter of how best to realize this plan.
All in all, the participating citizens came up with 77 challenges to be faced in order to insure the right type of development within the Capital Region during the coming 10 years. In addition to this, 167 specific suggestions and ideas on how to handle these challenges were presented. When asked about important elements for the politicians to consider when drafting the vision for the Capital Region, a total of 75 contributions were articulated by the citizens.
The results of the citizens’ summit, including the specific suggestions, ideas and visions, were made public on the actual day of the summit. The temporary version was called “The citizens’ catalogue of ideas” and was made accessible at the end of the summit.
The Capital Region cooperated with The Danish Board of Technology Foundation on conducting the citizens’ summit in Copenhagen where 167 citizens participated from all over the region, all invited on the basis of coincidence. The politicians of the Regional Council initiated the citizens’ summit, intending to offer citizens the opportunity to articulate their own visions and specific ideas for the future development of the region as a contribution to the politicians’ efforts to write up a regional development plan. The draft is expected to be presented for further debate in March, 2008. In June 2008 the Regional Council is expected to decide on a final development plan for the region. After this, it will be a matter of how best to realize this plan.
All in all, the participating citizens came up with 77 challenges to be faced in order to insure the right type of development within the Capital Region during the coming 10 years. In addition to this, 167 specific suggestions and ideas on how to handle these challenges were presented. When asked about important elements for the politicians to consider when drafting the vision for the Capital Region, a total of 75 contributions were articulated by the citizens.
The results of the citizens’ summit, including the specific suggestions, ideas and visions, were made public on the actual day of the summit. The temporary version was called “The citizens’ catalogue of ideas” and was made accessible at the end of the summit.