Rebuilding trust in government with bottom-up policies
At the ALDE Party Council meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, our group looked into how to make public administration more inclusive
Our important delegation to Ljubljana kicked off the ALDE Party Council Meeting with a seminar on public administration and bottom-up policy making, hosted by Andreja Potočnik, Member of the of Tržič Council and ALDE CoR-member, and chaired by our President Bart Somers.
The seminar explored ways how to make public administration more inclusive by enhancing cooperation between various levels of society. Boris Koprivnikar, Slovenian Minister of Public Administration, delivered the keynote speech, sharing Slovenian experiences and highlighted the need to adapt public administration to the digital age. He added that the government should create partnerships with civil society and businesses to make policy making more efficient and better equipped to the complex environment we live in.
Our member Klaas Kielstra, regional minister of Friesland, stressed the importance of bottom-up policy making with examples from his home region, taking into account a strong community sense, involving people to make the region stronger for instance in wind energy projects, which resulted in citizens displaying pride during opening ceremonies of new projects.
From the left Klaas KIELSTRA, Bart SOMERS, Boris KOPRIVNIKAR and Andreja POTOČNIK
From coal to tech: diversifying Trbovlje’s economy
An ALDE CoR delegation visited Trbovlje, the city of our member and Mayor Jasna Gabrič to see first-hand how reconversion can create a new dynamic and bring old industries back to life
During their study visit the delegation visited DEWESoft, a company developing measuring instruments for space vehicles, and Katapult, an intensive and practically oriented programme for start-up companies . Andrej Orozen, CEO of DEWESoft, explained that their business model and stressed the cooperation of his global company with the local community while Jernej Pangersic, Director of Katapult, gave a tour in the company’s headquarters, an old factory. Katapult was created with the intention to reduce unemployment in the Zasavje region and boost entrepreneurship, giving help and encouragement through successful stories of others for young people who are hesitant to follow a business path, while also revitalising old infrastructure which had been abandoned after the collapse of socialism. It is founded and supported by DEWESoft, which achieves the greatest added value per employee in the whole of Slovenia.
These companies and their approach proves that old industry towns can come back to life with creative and innovative approaches, which are core liberal values, and where companies with a global reach see a desire for development and potential in their own region, in this case Slovenia’s ninth largest town, long only known for coal mining.
ALDE-CoR delegation visiting DEWESoft
