Vilnius, Tallinn, Madrid, Prague, Pristina, and Kyiv provide the best access to information about their cities to their citizens, according to a study conducted by Transparency International Slovakia and its partners, where 26 European capitals have been evaluated.
Vilnius was rated better than other European capitals because individual voting records from the City Council sessions and its Mayor’s working schedule are published on the City Hall website, whereas 12 of the 26 capitals evaluated do not do this. Lithuania’s capital, much like other cities, provides very good access to information about city budgets, procurement deals, councillors’ decisions and contact information.
Unfortunately, Vilnius, unlike Madrid, does not make available to the public the current lobbying register of the City Council members. Likewise, unlike Madrid, Kyiv, Bucharest, Pristina and Rome, Vilnius does not publish current asset declarations of the Mayor and the City Council members on its website.
“I am glad that Vilnius can serve as an example to other European cities. Even so, we have to improve further. For example, even though the mayor of Vilnius makes his meetings with business groups and other organization representatives available to the public, City Council members do not. Meanwhile, Madrid does make the current lobbying register of their Mayor and the City Council members available to the public. I would like to raise Vilnius to an even higher standard.” said TI Lithuania’s CEO, Sergejus Muravjovas
Only publically available data on local government websites was used for the purposes of this study. Data was collected between October and December 2018. The report was finalised in July 2019 by Transparency International.
You can find the full study here.
For more information please contact: Sergejus Muravjovas
Email: info@transparency.lt
Tel. 868997579