Narva Considers Reviving Participatory Budget With Up to €20,000 in Funding
Narva, a city in eastern Estonia, is discussing bringing back a participatory budget programme worth €15,000–20,000 a year. Neighbouring Narva-Jõesuu plans to scrap its own programme from next year.
Authorities in Narva, a city on Estonia's eastern border, are considering reviving a participatory budget programme that would let residents propose urban improvement projects. Annual funding of €15,000–20,000 is under discussion. Meanwhile, neighbouring Narva-Jõesuu intends to abandon its programme from next year. The news was reported by the ETV+ programme "Aktuaalne kaamera".
In Narva
Civic initiative competitions were held in Narva in 2020 and 2021, and three improvement projects were completed during that time. City officials are now again discussing funding for residents' proposals, though on a smaller scale than before.
Urbo Vaarmann, chairman of the Narva City Council, said the previous administration had set the sum at about €300,000, which he called unreasonable, adding that many smaller groups could not manage to use it. In his view, €15,000–20,000 would be a realistic amount. He said the money could be included in next year's budget.
In Narva-Jõesuu
Narva-Jõesuu has allocated €30,000 a year to the programme in recent years. Since 2018, eight projects proposed by residents have been carried out in the town. Mayor Maksim Iljin explained the decision by saying that over the past two to three years relatively few ideas had been put to a vote and the proposals had started to repeat. According to him, slightly more than 100 people took part in this year's vote.
Lennart Lepajõe, a member of the Narva-Jõesuu city government, had earlier spoken against abolishing the participatory budget entirely. In his view, low turnout alone is not sufficient grounds for dropping a mechanism that allows residents to choose projects for their urban environment directly.
After ending the separate programme, Narva-Jõesuu authorities promise to keep considering residents' suggestions and to fund the most interesting projects from the city budget.
