1. European Policies from Open
Data to Civic Engagement
Luigi Reggi
Department of Informatics
State University of New York at Albany
Feb 10, 2016

2. EUROPEAN POLICIES AND
THE EU STRUCTURAL AND
INVESTMENT FUNDS (ESIF)

3. 1a Competitiveness for growth and jobs 142.13
1b Economic, social and territorial cohesion 366.79
Youth Employment Initiative (specific top-up allocation) 3.21
Regional convergence (Less developed regions) 185.37
Transition regions 35.70
Competitiveness (More developed regions) 55.78
Territorial cooperation 10.23
Cohesion fund 74.93
Outermost and sparsely populated regions 1.56
Margin 0.00
2 Sustainable Growth: Natural Resources 420.03
European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) — Market
related expenditure and direct payments
312.74
European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) 95.58
European Maritime Affairs and Fisheries 7.40
European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 6.40
International fisheries agreements and obligatory contributions
to Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs)
1.01
Environment and climate action (Life) 3.46
Agencies 0.39
Margin 0.47
3 Security and citizenship 17.73
4 Global Europe 66.26
5 Administration 69.58
6 Compensation 0.03
TOTAL 1082.56
Structural and
Investment
Funds (ESIFs)
466 billion
Euros
43% of total
EU budget
Billion Euros,
current prices
EU Budget
2014-2020

4. 0 20 40 60 80 100
Outermost & Sparsely Populated
Discontinued Measures
Efficient Public Administration
Technical Assistance
Information & Communication Technologies
Climate Change Adaptation & Risk…
Educational & Vocational Training
Sustainable & Quality Employment
Social Inclusion
Low-Carbon Economy
Research & Innovation
Network Infrastructures in Transport and…
Environment Protection & Resource…
Competitiveness of SMEs
Billion €
Available funding by theme
(2014-2020)

5. Eligible areas
(ERDF and ESF)

6. Multi-level governance
EU
Commission
National
Governments
Regional Governments
Local Governments and
municipalities
• Common EU Regulation
• 530+ Operational Programmes
• Hundreds of Managing Authorities

7. 3 PROBLEMS

8. 1. A problem of
efficiency
Absorption rate
% of Funds paid out by the EU Commission in the period 2007-13, Feb 2016

9. 2. A problem of (measuring)
effectiveness
• Dominant result indicator =
absorption capacity
• Weak system of policy indicators
– Data quality issues (output and outcome)
– Only aggregated figures
• Hard to evaluate the results of millions of
projects funded

10. 3. A problem of
social accountability
• Weak downwards accountability
– Improved but still insufficient provisions for
transparency
– absence of institutional mechanisms through
which administrators face consequences for their
decisions (Bovens, 2007)
– complex governance does not help
• Weak upwards accountability
– Stakeholders engagement in the monitoring
committees is often limited to the “usual
suspects”, while a much greater resort to
genuinely bottom-up policies would be needed
(Rodriguez-Pose, 2013)

11. Some preliminary hypotheses
• Detailed, high-quality and legible Open
Government Data (OGD) on projects funded
by ESIFs can potentially enable new forms of
– citizen monitoring of actual policy progress and
results,
– citizen participation and collaboration in policy
making
• If specific institutional mechanisms are in
place, the feedback collected from the
bottom-up can improve the quality of policy
making and ultimately the efficiency and
effectiveness of the policy

12. TOWARDS AN ECOSYSTEM MODEL
OF OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA
FOCUSED ON PUBLIC POLICY

13. Community 1 Community 2 Community n
Intermediaries
Media
…
OGD
Portals
Open Data
Internal data
flows
Beneficiaries
of funding

14. Community 1 Community 2 Community n
Intermediaries
Media
…
OGD
Portals
Feedback
flows
transparency
advocates,
civic tech
community

15. Community 1 Community 2 Community n
Intermediaries
Media
…
OGD
Portals
• How the administrations are
collecting the data on projects’
progress and performance?
• What managerial and legal
mechanisms influence the quality of
existing monitoring systems?
• Do high-quality monitoring systems
enhance the quality of OGD
provision?
administrative
data
STEP 1
Internal data
collection and
management
Beneficiaries
of funding

16. Community 1 Community 2 Community n
Intermediaries
Media
…
OGD
Portals
OGD
• What is the quality of OGD in terms
of detail, completeness, legibility,
process transparency? (Picci 2006,
Shkabatur 2012)
• What are the strategies for OGD
publication? (Dawes 2010, Reggi
and Ricci, 2011)
• What proactive actions are
implemented to promote data re-
use? How to stimulate citizen
engagement and participation?
STEP 2
OGD publication
& engagement

17. OGD
Portals
Media directfeedback
Community 1 Community 2 Community n
…
Intermediaries
• How local communities can measure the
impact of public projects on the ground?
• What conditions and capabilities are
necessary?
• What IT tools are used/useful for citizen
monitoring (Zuckerman 2014)?
• What is the role of the intermediaries and
the media?
STEP 3
OGD use &
feedback
collection
transparency
advocates,
civic tech
community

18. Community 1 Community 2 Community n
Intermediaries
Media
…
OGD
Portals
• What is the impact of existing follow-the-money and citizen monitoring campaigns
based on open data availability and developed by civil society organizations?
• How public administrations can integrate citizen’s feedback into the policy cycle?
What kind of institutional and legal mechanisms should be developed?
• How the multi-level, complex governance can influence this process?
• What conditions are necessary? What is the role of political will, institutional
capacity, human and financial resources?
STEP 4
Closing the
feedback loop