Luigi Reggi

From students to cities: Building a civic ecosystem for better EU policies

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As part of the final event of the AwareEU project on May 23 at the European Commission Representation in Rome, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel on civic monitoring and its role in shaping a more transparent, evidence-based, and citizen-oriented implementation of European funds.

This session brought together three perspectives that, taken together, form the basis of what I believe is a civic ecosystem capable of improving accountability and participation in EU policies: the role of students and civic communities, the evolution of journalism beyond traditional newsrooms, and the public administrations that choose to engage with them.

Why monitoring matters: A view from the European Commission

Before opening the panel, we had the pleasure of hearing from Francesco Rossi Salvemini, representative of the European Commission in Italy. His remarks offered a valuable institutional perspective that grounded the conversation in the broader goals of EU transparency and civic engagement.

He began by emphasizing that initiatives aimed at bringing citizens closer to how public money is spent — especially EU funds — are not only welcome but essential. In his words:

“Personally, I find it extremely valuable to involve citizens in tracking how public money is used — whether national or European. How many of us, even myself, actually know who’s responsible for what’s happening in our own neighborhoods? Who manages the projects? Which municipality or local authority? This type of monitoring isn’t just important for EU funding — it should apply to all public resources. We often waste our intellectual energies on gossip or football, when we could focus more on understanding where our resources come from and how they’re spent.”

He acknowledged that, paradoxically, monitoring how EU funds are used is in some ways easier than doing the same for national funds, thanks to systems like OpenCoesione. In fact, he praised OpenCoesione as a best practice that allows citizens to see clearly what projects are planned, where they’re located, and what their status is — information that is often far less accessible for nationally funded interventions.

Speaking about the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the PNRR, he highlighted a structural limitation: unlike EU Cohesion Policy, the RRF lacks a centralized platform equivalent to OpenCoesione, even though some information is there, on national and EU portals.

Lastly, he noted that while tools like REGIS and the national project map may not yet be perfect, they already represent a positive example at the EU level, offering a centralized view of spending progress, beneficiaries, and procurement.

Civic monitoring as a tool for journalism

Antonella Ciociola (Monithon) introduced the AwareEU project and some of the results achieved.

The project analyzed cases of initiatives financed through EU Cohesion Funds from the 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 programming periods, as well as through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) in Italy, and their impacts, starting from the civic monitoring reports published on Monithon by students and civil society organizations.

Through a mentoring program organized by info.nodes, young journalists used techniques from storytelling and data journalism to develop and adapt those contents for broader audiences. Further data analysis and visualization was supported by the experience of onData.

There are also four videos available online, produced with the supervision of Monithon, that explain how EU Cohesion Policy and the PNRR work, and the positive impact that EU funds have had on local communities and society:

Civic monitoring as a learning and relational practice

Prof. Marinella Belluati (University of Turin) opened the discussion by sharing insights from her long-standing experience in running a civic monitoring lab at UniTo, involving over 500 students in the past five years.

“Civic monitoring adds the kind of concreteness that’s often missing when we try to communicate Europe.”

She described how students develop a growing awareness of their agency as citizens, especially when they realize that EU-funded projects actually shape their own lives. What she called the “wow effect” occurs on both sides: students feel empowered, and public administrations appreciate being observed and supported—not out of suspicion, but with empathy.

Her point was clear: if we want these practices to grow, we need national networks that can connect efforts across territories. And we need to go beyond collecting data — we must foster meaningful dialogue. As she put it, “democracy lives through participation, not just information.”

Journalism “beyond the newsroom” meets civic media

Prof. Elena Valentini (Sapienza University of Rome) connected the panel to broader trends in journalism studies. In closing a recent special issue on Journalism beyond the newsroom, she emphasized the need to recognize new spaces and actors in the production of public information.

Valentini pointed to Monithon’s work as a tangible example of this shift: a “beyond journalism” approach where citizens become protagonists, not in search of becoming journalists themselves, but out of a civic drive to contribute.

She argued for moving past the traditional media-centric viewpoint, highlighting instead the value of the audience—citizens, communities, students—as active players. This shift, often called the “audience turn”, places civic initiatives like Monithon at the heart of a redefined ecosystem for information.

She concluded by calling for alliances across sectors: between civic media, journalists, institutions, and academia. Only through collaboration, she suggested, can we restore the complexity of public discourse and avoid fragmentary or simplified narratives.

The institutional perspective: early involvement and structured dialogue

Giorgio Martini, former Managing Authority of the PON Metro programme, shared practical reflections from years of hands-on policy implementation.

He acknowledged that civic monitoring—when it occurs—is often sporadic and unstructured, especially at the scale of national programmes. Yet he also offered compelling examples of when it worked: from joint visits to project sites with citizen groups (like the Vele di Scampia in Naples), to local debates on mobility projects in Milan.

“Civic monitoring should be part of the programme design from the start. Not just for transparency, but to imagine projects together, monitor them during implementation, and evaluate them after they’re done.”

He emphasized the need for structured communication and education efforts, especially in schools and universities, and the role of public authorities in providing data, images, and clear project narratives.

Importantly, he reminded us that public authorities act as mediators between competing interests. Yet when citizens show strong, organized support for a project, that consensus can endure beyond political cycles.

My take: Civic monitoring as part of a participatory data ecosystem

Students, civic media, and public institutions are not isolated actors—they are co-dependent components of a system where open data are used to inform, engage, and shape public action.

This panel confirmed that such an ecosystem is not just a theoretical construct: it is already emerging. But its success depends on one condition: we must acknowledge and support the relationships that make it work—between curiosity and professionalism, between bottom-up energy and institutional capacity, and above all, between those who produce data and those who use it for the public good.

The insights that emerged help us—building on Prof. Belluati’s proposal and the success of ongoing experiences—to sharpen the idea of strengthening a national network of universities that promote civic monitoring as a learning activity, using Monithon’s formalized methodology as the core framework and our team as a hub supporting the actors involved.

Luigi Reggi

How civic reports can fuel journalistic investigations on EU funding: Insights from Palermo

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What happens when citizens and journalists join forces to investigate how public investments truly impact local communities? How can civic monitoring reports become the foundation for journalistic inquiries that reveal unseen contradictions, inefficiencies, or even success stories?
Investigative journalism has the power of transforming raw civic data into compelling narratives that can spark public debate, hold institutions accountable, and drive meaningful change.
This post reflects on the dynamic relationship between civic activism and investigative journalism, exploring mutual benefits and the challenges of sustaining such impactful collaborations.

Empowering journalists to investigate public spending with civic data

An example of this collaborative approach is the AwareEU initiative, a project co-funded by the European Union, which explored how civic monitoring stories can be transformed into investigative journalism. It is likely the first time that, under the IMREG funding line of the DG REGIO, a project was conceived and implemented entirely by civil society organizations. We gathered in Palermo at a public event organized by the OnData civic association.

As part of the initiative, Info.nodes, in partnership with Action Aid, Ondata and Monithon Europe, coordinated a comprehensive training program for aspiring and professional journalists, focused on European funding mechanisms such as the EU Cohesion Policy and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

Federica Bonalumi from Info.nodes coordinated the school for journalists.

Out of 140 course participants, 70 actively joined the program, which combined technical modules with hands-on investigative work. Journalists were encouraged to select specific projects previously monitored by civic groups and develop them into full investigative stories. Supported by experienced reporters and data experts, these journalists conducted fieldwork, uncovered contradictions, and gave new narrative life to existing civic data. The result was a set of seven investigative stories—most of them published on national media outlets and all included in a dedicated publication. The initiative demonstrated the potential of data-informed civic monitoring to seed rigorous, long-form journalism capable of reshaping public conversations on public spending.

The process began with Antonella Ciociola and Cinzia Roma from the Monithon staff selecting a subset of civic monitoring reports from its extensive public database, focusing on projects with strong community involvement, tangible territorial impact, and narrative potential—whether due to conflict, resolution, or relevance to broader national issues. These reports provided the initial foundation for the investigative work.

Notably, all selected journalists were women, bringing a diverse and often underrepresented perspective to the coverage of public investment. Throughout the project, they received support from senior journalists and data experts who acted as mentors, guiding them through the complexities of field research, data interpretation, and narrative construction. This support structure allowed the journalists to go beyond desk-based reporting and carry out on-the-ground investigations that exposed both shortcomings and successes in the implementation of EU-funded projects.

Spotlight on key issues

Several significant themes emerged from this collaboration, which sometimes led to documented impact:

  • Urban regeneration and the risks of gentrification:
    In Milan’s Corvetto neighborhood, civic data revealed how beautification projects might unintentionally push original residents out of their community. Investigative reporting amplified local voices, highlighting how superficial urban improvements risk deepening social inequalities.
  • Social services and long-term sustainability:
    Another inquiry focused on shelters for women victims of violence, illustrating that essential services often fall short in duration and resources. Journalistic follow-up ensured continuous attention to these issues, pushing institutions to provide lasting solutions.
  • Institutional accountability:
    Civic monitoring at Ferrara prison uncovered unplanned structural changes funded by public money, leading to reduced space for rehabilitation activities. This discovery prompted parliamentary inquiries, demonstrating the power of civic journalism to trigger institutional responses.

Challenges and opportunities for investigative reporting

While these collaborations proved impactful, journalists still face significant barriers in bringing these stories to a wider audience. While a few stories reached national outlets—such as L’Espresso—major national outlets are often reluctant to feature investigations rooted in local contexts. Most found better traction in local or thematic publications. To bridge this gap, the initiative developed a network of senior journalists who acted as editorial coaches and facilitators, leveraging their professional relationships to help bring these investigations to the right platforms. Collaborations with outlets like IRPI Media and FADA Collective also proved instrumental in reaching specialized audiences interested in social justice, transparency, and civic participation.

Patrizia Caruso from Action Aid Italy and Andrea Borruso from Ondata introduced the AwareEU project

Journalists can also frame their stories in a way that transcends the specific case, identifying patterns, trends, or implications that resonate on a national scale. This editorial reframing is not always straightforward, and demands time, experience, and strategic guidance.

The economic model of investigative journalism also poses limitations. Without external funding, many of these investigations—especially those involving fieldwork and long-term research—would not be possible. Journalists in this initiative received financial support to cover travel, interviews, photography, and production costs, which are rarely covered by the media outlets themselves. Mentorship from senior journalists played an equally vital role, offering editorial advice and helping build bridges with potential publishers. These relationships were crucial not only for refining the quality of the investigations but also for navigating the often opaque mechanisms through which freelance stories are accepted and published.

Another challenge was the extended timeline required to produce high-quality investigative work. Stories often took three to four months to complete, involving multiple iterations, unexpected data gaps, and evolving hypotheses. In some cases, journalists started with assumptions that were later contradicted by field evidence, forcing them to shift narrative direction. This ability to adapt was key to maintaining journalistic integrity, but it required a supportive and flexible working environment.

Despite these obstacles, the project demonstrated that with the right infrastructure—financial, editorial, and relational—investigative journalism rooted in civic monitoring can thrive. It also showed the value of building networks of journalists and civic actors that can sustain each other beyond the scope of individual projects.

Enhancing civic monitoring for better journalism

To maximize the potential of civic monitoring for journalism, participants at the Palermo meeting emphasized the need to move beyond one-off collaborations and toward building more systematic, long-term relationships. Rather than expecting journalists to independently discover and interpret civic data, a sustained dialogue between monitoring groups and the media would allow for a more strategic and timely use of available information.

A key suggestion was to enhance the editorial role of Monithon, not only as a data platform but as an active intermediary capable of supporting journalists in identifying the most promising stories. With over 1400 civic reports available, the abundance of information can be overwhelming. Therefore, helping journalists navigate this repository—by curating stories based on civic engagement, local impact, narrative tension, or even the willingness of monitoring teams to go public—would greatly increase the chances of those stories gaining media traction.

Participants also noted the importance of preparing civic activists to engage with journalists more effectively. This could include training on data communication, storytelling, and how to support fact-checking and sourcing. Civic monitoring groups, especially those formed by students or local associations, often collect valuable information but may lack the capacity or confidence to present it in a journalistic format. Bridging that gap would empower communities to contribute more directly to shaping public narratives around public spending.

 

Mutual gains and lasting impact

Ultimately, collaboration between civic monitors and investigative journalists creates a virtuous circle that benefits both sides. Journalists gain access to grounded, community-driven data that adds depth and authenticity to their investigations. Civic actors, in turn, see their work amplified and contextualized through powerful storytelling, increasing their influence and credibility.

For Monithon, these collaborations represent more than visibility—they demonstrate how citizen-generated data can trigger real institutional reactions. In the case of the Ferrara prison investigation, for example, civic monitoring uncovered plans that could reduce rehabilitation spaces, prompting a parliamentary question. Without journalistic follow-up, that insight might have remained buried in a report. The added value comes from combining civic insight with professional narrative skills to push stories into the public sphere where decisions are made.

Participants also recognized the importance of structuring this collaboration as a repeatable model, not a one-time experiment. The Palermo event highlighted how pairing civic monitoring with journalism training, mentorship, and editorial guidance can yield high-quality, impactful results. Rather than waiting for media interest to arise spontaneously, this approach actively constructs the conditions for civic stories to evolve into national conversations.

These experiences inspire future collaborations, showing how citizen-generated data combined with investigative journalism can significantly influence public discourse and policy-making. By enhancing civic narratives through powerful journalism, communities can more effectively hold public institutions accountable and ensure investments truly benefit local people.

AwareEU Resources

Appendix: Criteria for selecting civic monitoring stories

As part of the preparatory work for the journalism training and investigations, Monithon’s team developed a classification framework to assess the potential of existing civic monitoring reports to be expanded into investigative stories. The table below summarizes the key dimensions that guided the selection process:

DimensionCriteria
Basic descriptorsRegion and city; Topic; Link to report; Monitoring judgment on effectiveness; Project status; Observed impact; Notes
Strategic factorsBalance across stories (PNRR / EU Cohesion); Representation of small communities, inner areas, city suburbs, rural zones; Geographic balance (North–Center–South); Possibility for comparative analysis
Narrative potentialSymbolic or emotional strength; Community impact; Practical use of completed projects; Positive or negative outcomes; Controversial elements; Long-term evolution (e.g. historical trends in funding); Connection to policy debates; Impact on daily life
Thematic relevanceUrban transformation; Service access; Social innovation; Large-scale projects; Institutional relations and participation; Institutional dialogue or follow-up; Good public administration practices; Representation of EU added value
Civic monitorsSchools and universities; Associations; Youth or vulnerable groups; Individual citizens or informal groups

Priority was given to stories where project partners had contacts with local stakeholders, increasing the feasibility and depth of journalistic investigation.

Luigi Reggi

Unlocking civic monitoring: Italy’s unique approach to linking publicly-funded projects and tenders

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This article stems from our collaboration with the initiative Dati Bene Comune. A previous version was published in Italian in their newsletter. Dati Bene Comune is a civic campaign that works to unlock and make usable public interest datasets—especially those that are unpublished, hard to access, or poorly documented. By transforming these data resources, the initiative helps fill key information gaps and supports more effective, community-driven civic action.

Italy has developed a distinctive system allowing citizens to track (at least to some extent) the lifecycle of publicly funded projects—from initial planning and funding approval to project implementation—through a clear link between project codes (CUP – Codice Unico Progetto) and tender identifiers (CIG – Codice Identificativo Gara). While procurement data from all over the EU are openly published and well-organized in portals such as OpenTender, the explicit connection between individual tenders and their related projects, including those funded by the EU, is not commonly provided. Italy’s CUP-CIG system thus offers an additional layer of transparency that could inspire transparency advocates and public administrations across Europe.

Two years ago, when we at Monithon first started exploring open procurement data published by Italy’s Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), it felt like discovering a goldmine hidden beneath layers of bureaucracy. Our goal was clear: enable any citizen to understand exactly how public funds (such as the EU Recovery funds – PNRR in Italy) are spent in their own cities.

Each publicly funded project in Italy is assigned a unique CUP. Each tender linked to that project carries a CIG. Although seemingly straightforward, this important CUP-CIG link often remains inaccessible, buried within datasets requiring advanced technical skills to navigate.

For over two years, Monithon has been dedicated to surfacing these hidden datasets, significantly easing the task of civic monitoring of PNRR-funded projects. Civic monitoring empowers citizens to directly assess project progress, quality, and effectiveness. Among nearly 1,400 civic monitoring initiatives carried out in recent years, over 30 specifically target PNRR projects.

How we use CUP-CIG data: Easily identifying the Responsible Project Officers (RUPs)

A common challenge for civic monitors is pinpointing the exact institutional contact for project details. ANAC’s procurement data reveals precisely who the RUP is, including their names and institutional affiliation, streamlining direct contacts and access to key project information.

For instance, during a civic monitoring course led by Prof. Carmela Barbera and myself at the University of Bergamo (April 2025), students selected several PNRR-funded projects from the Italia Domani portal. They targeted projects already significantly advanced in terms of payments (at least 20-30%), ensuring actual implementation had begun. Examples included:

  • Reducing water losses in Bergamo’s water networks;
  • Renovation of Bergamo’s former Maddalena Convent into judicial offices;
  • Restoration of Monza Park;
  • Construction of a Reuse Centre in Crema.

Thanks to a simplified CUP-CIG dataset provided by Andrea Borruso from Ondata association (see the GitHub repo), students quickly located the relevant tender identifiers. They then identified the RUPs via ANAC’s analytics portal, enabling targeted interviews currently underway.

Direct and detailed civic monitoring of individual tenders

A more comprehensive approach was successfully piloted through the European iMonitor project (2024-2025). Using a specially developed monitoring template available on the Monithon.eu platform, citizens examined individual tenders, assessing factors like implementation timelines, procedural transparency, and the quality of completed works.

One notable example: Fabio Farag, an intern at Monithon Europe, conducted an in-depth monitoring of the refurbishment of Falcone-Borsellino and Paradiso parks in Grugliasco, near Turin, thanks to his participation in a civic monitoring laboratory at the University of Turin. His monitoring highlighted strengths such as environmental sustainability and accessibility through recycled materials, alongside critical issues like bureaucratic complexity and inadequate citizen engagement. The findings were presented to national and European authorities in June 2024.

ANAC’s “Analytics” section of the website shows all public tenders (CIGs) associated with a given project (CUP)

During 2025, Farag’s work leveraged CUP-CIG data to pinpoint the main tender, the primary contractor, and potential subcontractors. He interviewed the RUP and the local councilor responsible, assessing ongoing project alignment with original contractual specifications—a process particularly critical at more advanced stages of project implementation.

It’s not just an experiment: this year, the iMonitor monitoring activity covered 96 public contracts across 4 European countries, leading to some interesting findings.

Why this matters

While procurement data alone can’t cover all civic monitoring needs—especially evaluating concrete project impacts, which require further citizen-generated data—it provides a foundational resource, improving dialogue between citizens and public administrations.

Making this data fully accessible isn’t simply about transparency; it empowers citizens to actively contribute to improving the quality of local public projects and services. Italy’s approach, linking CUP and CIG identifiers, offers a model of transparency and accountability that other European countries might beneficially adopt.

Public administrations must continue efforts to simplify data access and enhance usability through clearer communication and user-friendly portals like OpenCoesione—an essential step still missing for PNRR investments. Encouraging active citizen oversight is crucial to ensuring projects funded by public resources achieve maximum efficiency, effectiveness, and legality.

 

Image courtesy of Prof. Raul-Pacheco Vega 
Monithon

From the field to Brussels: Monithon’s experience in the iMonitor project

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On 27 March 2025, our own Luigi Reggi and Giulia Renzi had the opportunity to present the results of their work in Italy at the final conference of the European iMonitor project, held in Brussels. The event marked the conclusion of the iMonitor project, a two-year effort aimed at combining public procurement data analytics with civic monitoring across four countries: Italy, Lithuania, Romania, and Spain (Catalonia).

While the conference was an important moment to reflect on results and share experiences among project partners, it also served as a launchpad for iMonitor 2.0, which will begin in May 2025 with an expanded reach and new thematic priorities — particularly climate and construction-related investments.

Here we offer a closer look at Monithon’s contribution to iMonitor in Italy, as well as insights from the other participating countries and institutions.

iMonitor

iMonitor 1.0 is a two-year European project that combined data analytics and civic monitoring to improve transparency in public procurement across four countries: Italy, Lithuania, Romania, and Catalonia (Spain).

The project used a three-step approach — Select, Monitor, Report — enabling citizen monitors to investigate high-risk contracts identified via OpenTender.eu. These were supported with training, fieldwork tools, and reporting platforms, with findings shared with public enforcement partners.

Key achievements included:

  • 96 contracts monitored
  • 120 active monitors, supported by 27 organizations
  • A tailored 2-module training program
  • Enhanced data infrastructure with new integrity indicators

The final event was not only a showcase of results, but a real forum for dialogue. With keynote remarks from Nicolae Ştefănuță, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and contributions from Mihály Fazekas and Bianca Vaz Mondo of the Government Transparency Institute and national partners, the stage was set for reflecting on what we achieved and what comes next in iMonitor 2.0 — a phase that promises broader geographic reach and more innovation.

🇮🇹 Monithon’s approach to the monitoring of public tenders

Monithon led the Italian chapter of the project with a very specific focus: how to engage local communities in using data to monitor real public projects — not from a place of confrontation, but through dialogue and collaboration.

Our work started with assessing the risk of corruption of individual tenders, so public contracts were initially selected among those with high values of the potential corruption risk indicator developed by the project and accessible through the OpenTender portal.  However, our approach has always been rooted in the belief that civic monitoring works best when it encourages constructive relationships with public institutions.

Over the course of the year, we contacted more than 80 organizations and individuals. Thirteen of them completed the full journey: they joined our training sessions, selected public contracts through OpenTender.eu, conducted field visits, and published full civic monitoring reports.

What made this possible — and meaningful — was the link between local relevance and European funding. Communities weren’t randomly assigned projects to monitor; they chose investments that mattered to them — schools, hospitals, urban regeneration — often funded by EU or national programs.

Thanks to the availability of open data from ANAC – the Italian Anticorruption Authority that supported the project, we were able to connect each CUP (project identifier) to the corresponding CIG (tender ID), allowing citizens to trace the full lifecycle of a public investment — from funding source to contracting and execution. This level of transparency was key to turning abstract data into something concrete and monitorable at the local level.

Some participants were already active in civic life. Others came through a social media call we launched. Most participants had never done anything like this before, but together, we created something powerful:

  • 16 monitoring reports
  • 8 identified issues (delays, lack of transparency)
  • 2 suspicious cases now under further review.

A story from the field: Urban renovation and a hedgehog colony in Turin

During the panel on national contributions, Giulia Renzi, a Monithon volunteer and a recent graduate, shared a compelling story from her civic monitoring experience in Turin. She investigated a public investment project focused on urban regeneration, only to discover that the works had been significantly delayed.

Rather than stopping at the surface, Giulia submitted a formal request for information to the Municipality — and received a detailed explanation. Among the reasons for the delay? The unexpected discovery of a hedgehog colony on-site — a protected species in Italy — which required careful relocation before construction could resume.

While the story may sound unusual, it captured one of the key messages we aimed to share throughout the project: civic monitoring isn’t about confrontation, but understanding. When public officials are willing to explain their choices, and citizens are willing to ask the right questions, the result can be a win-win dialogue — one based on transparency, respect, and shared responsibility.

🇷🇴 Romania: from civic monitoring to corruption alerts and asset declarations

In Romania, the iMonitor initiative was coordinated by the Romanian Academic Society (SAR), focusing on a grassroots approach that engaged young, first-time civic monitors across ten counties and Bucharest. Of the 36 volunteers initially involved, 15 remained actively engaged throughout the project.

The monitors reviewed 26 public contracts, submitted 11 full reports, and conducted 10 on-site visits. One notable negative case involved a traffic monitoring system that was flagged by an iMonitor volunteer for irregularities. The suspicions raised eventually triggered a broader corruption investigation — a powerful example of how community-led monitoring can act as an early warning system when paired with effective institutional follow-up.

In parallel, Romania also introduced a second monitoring track focused on transparency in local governance. Volunteers collected and systematized 1,145 mayoral asset declarations from municipalities across the country. An outlier analysis is currently underway to identify unusual patterns or discrepancies that could merit further investigation.

This dual focus — on both procurement contracts and asset declarations — demonstrated how civic monitors can play a valuable role in detecting risk and improving accountability across multiple dimensions of public integrity.

🇪🇸 Catalonia: Local engagement meets institutional collaboration

In Catalonia, the iMonitor project was led by COLPIS, focusing on strengthening local civic engagement while leveraging institutional collaboration — particularly with the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia (OAC). The team trained over 40 participants through in-person and online sessions, ultimately involving 31 civic monitors who reviewed 38 contracts across multiple levels of government, from local to state level.

Selection of contracts was guided by OpenTender’s risk indicators and red flags provided by the OAC. While access to execution-related data remained a challenge, six contracts revealed irregularities, with five reports submitted to enforcement bodies. Participants came from diverse backgrounds — including students, public officials, and neighborhood activists — showing how civic monitoring can mobilize a wide cross-section of society when supported by trusted institutions and targeted training.

🇱🇹 Lithuania: From the classroom to real-world oversight

In Lithuania, Transparency International Lithuania (TILS) implemented iMonitor in close partnership with Mykolas Romeris University, embedding the monitoring process directly into academic programs. Over 60 students from law and public administration programs were trained to assess low-integrity contracts using OpenTender and field-based tools.

They monitored 21 procurement procedures across several regions, covering sectors like vehicle procurement, IT, and environmental maintenance. Despite finding limited availability of information on supplier ownership and bidder participation, the initiative had a clear educational and practical impact. Many students reported increased confidence in identifying corruption risks and used FOIA requests to access additional data. The project demonstrated how academic institutions can serve as incubators for long-term civic engagement, combining data literacy with real-world applications.

Reflections from key speakers

The iMonitor final conference was not only a space for presenting results — it was a moment of reflection on the role of civil society, data, and institutions in defending democracy and integrity in public spending.

The event opened with welcoming remarks by Jeroen Blomsma (DG JUST) and Mihály Fazekas (Government Transparency Institute), who underlined the importance of the iMonitor project within the broader European anti-corruption framework. Blomsma noted that public procurement is among the sectors most vulnerable to corruption, according to a recent analysis by the European Commission, with an estimated cost of at least €180 billion per year. He also emphasized the growing attention of EU institutions toward technological tools and data analysis to guide public action in this field, highlighting the importance of collaboration between public authorities and civil society. Finally, he announced that a new EU Anti-Corruption Strategy is expected in 2026, potentially opening up new opportunities for initiatives like iMonitor.

Nicolae Ştefănuță, Vice-President of the European Parliament, delivered a powerful keynote in support of civic initiatives like iMonitor. He warned of a global “MAGA-wave” that undermines democratic norms, including transparency in public spending. Arguing that “democracy defence is also part of defence,” he called for increased investment in civil society and investigative media — particularly at a time when rising defence budgets may crowd out support for oversight mechanisms. He encouraged stronger advocacy toward EU institutions like the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and OLAF, and warned against the misuse of emergency powers to limit democratic freedoms.

During the panel on big data and civic engagement, several valuable insights emerged:

  • Angelos Binis (SG REFORM) shared lessons from participatory budgeting pilots and civic tech platforms in Greece. While access to procurement and lobbying data has improved, he noted that true civic impact depends on the serious commitment of civil society and the responsiveness of public authorities. He referenced international practices, including social audits in Latin America and strategic citizen consultations in Australia.
  • Antonio Greco (Transparency International) discussed the Integrity Pact model, a preventive anti-corruption tool tested in different EU Countries thanks to the support of the European Commission. Unlike iMonitor, which emphasizes grassroots engagement, the Integrity Pact relies on experts and pre-emptive oversight. Greco emphasized that the two models are complementary: Integrity Pacts are well suited for high-value, high-risk contracts, while the iMonitor method can scale across smaller, locally relevant projects.
  • Benedetta Biancardi (ANAC – Italian Anti-Corruption Authority) underlined the need for a structured, institutionalized dialogue between public authorities and civil society. She stressed four conditions for effective civic monitoring:
    1. Clear legal and policy frameworks, including practical guidance for civil servants;
    2. Adequate funding, both for civil society and public bodies;
    3. Shared training programs to build mutual understanding and trust;
    4. Visibility for success stories, to help shift the perception of civic engagement from burden to opportunity.

Biancardi also highlighted ANAC’s leadership in implementing Italy’s Open Government Partnership commitments, especially in making procurement data both accessible and usable. Her remarks echoed one of the key takeaways from the Italian iMonitor experience: data is only useful when paired with dialogue, capacity, and human relationships.

What we learned (and what worked)

We quickly realized that motivation doesn’t come from dashboards. It comes from support, trust, and shared purpose.

That’s why our strategy in Italy focused on human contact:

  • Constant tutoring via calls and chats
  • Field visits that created bonds between people and places
  • Legal support throughout the process
  • Open badges and recognition that made participants feel part of something meaningful
  • Even small playful touches — like the “Selfie with the RUP (public manager responsible for the tender)” challenge — made it approachable

The most important lesson? When people feel they belong, they contribute more than you’d ever expect.

Looking Ahead

While the Brussels conference marked the end of iMonitor 1.0, we already see what’s next.

In Italy, six of the communities we worked with have committed to continuing their monitoring activities. Many others expressed interest in replicating the method or teaching it to others.

The seeds of a community of practice are clearly there. And if iMonitor 2.0 builds on this momentum — giving citizens even more space to engage — I believe we’ll see a real transformation in how public spending is monitored across Europe.

For Monithon, this project was a confirmation of what we’ve always believed: open data becomes truly powerful when it’s used by people who care. Civic monitoring isn’t about catching someone doing wrong. It’s about making public investment better, together.

We’re proud of what we achieved in Italy — not just because of the reports we published, but because of the people we brought together.

Luigi Reggi

Civic monitoring for urban development: Insights from the Lazio region

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On March 21, 2025, I had the pleasure of representing Monithon at the final event of a civic monitoring pilot supported by the Managing Authority of the ERDF Lazio Regional Programme 2021–2027. Held at WeGil in Rome, the event brought together local administrations, associations, national and international institutions to discuss the outcomes of a participatory initiative focused on monitoring urban development projects in Latina, Frosinone, Rieti, and Viterbo, as part of Policy Objective 5 on sustainable urban development. This initiative is part of a broader effort led by the European Commission, and was selected as one of 11 pilot projects across Europe to test new forms of civic participation at the local level (see this article on Panorama).

The initiative was developed with the support of the OECD and the European Commission and was based on the Monithon method for civic monitoring. This approach, which we’ve been refining since 2013 to help citizens engage with public policies through structured and evidence-based assessments, has been validated and integrated by the OECD for the occasion.

From the very beginning of the event, the tone was set by two important institutional voices. Francesco Amodeo, representing DG REGIO of the European Commission, recalled that President Ursula von der Leyen recently sent a letter to all Commissioners stressing the need to involve citizens more directly in shaping EU policies. He emphasized how DG REGIO is putting this principle into action by supporting regional initiatives like the one in Lazio. Amodeo also mentioned the example of the Polish pilot as a demonstration of how civic engagement can become part of EU cohesion policy governance.

Giulia Cibrario, a policy analyst at the OECD, highlighted that among the 11 pilots supported by the Organisation, Lazio’s was the only one to adopt civic monitoring as its method. She also shared a word of caution: in a context where administrations are often forced to do more with less, citizen participation might be seen as an optional luxury. But it should be the opposite. Participation is both intrinsically valuable, as it strengthens trust in institutions, and instrumentally beneficial, as it contributes to more effective and informed policymaking. At the local level, she said, citizens bring not just enthusiasm but also contextual knowledge and practical experience.

From fieldwork to dialogue: the civic monitoring process

Between October 2024 and March 2025, local associations across the four cities undertook a full civic monitoring cycle, supported by Monithon and the regional institutions.

This process included:

  • Training and document analysis to understand project goals, budgets, and implementation status;
  • Field data collection, including community surveys, GIS-based spatial analysis, and field visits to project sites;
  • Public restitution events, where associations presented findings and engaged in dialogue with municipal officials and project managers (RUPs).

To name a few examples: the Borgo Piave Committee collected 441 survey responses from local residents; Quartieri Connessi engaged 123 participants in their investigation; Schioppo Bene Comune, Urban Center, Legambiente, and others conducted georeferenced analyses and field visits to verify the state of urban interventions.

The final reports were published on reports.monithon.eu, adding to a repository of over 1,400 civic monitoring reports created using Monithon’s method across Italy and other 8 European Countries.

At the final event, the associations shared their experience through live interventions and video messages. Their reflections brought to light both successes and critical challenges — including how the initiative helped open new channels of communication, and where bureaucratic inertia or lack of responsiveness remained a barrier. These testimonies reflected a strong desire to be heard, as well as a clear sense of public responsibility and expertise.

👉🏻 Read the reports from a list (in Italian)

Tangible results, recognized by institutions

The monitoring activities led to several concrete outcomes.

First, access to information improved. In many cases, project managers collaborated with associations by sharing implementation data and explaining procedures during dedicated meetings. This not only demystified the management of EU funds but also gave citizens tools to track progress independently.

Second, the initiative had a direct impact on public decision-making. In at least five documented cases, suggestions from civic monitors were taken into account by municipal authorities and forwarded to the project designers and contractors for integration.

Third, the project fostered a culture of continued civic engagement. Several associations expressed their commitment to continue following the projects they monitored, essentially “adopting” them and preparing to produce follow-up reports in the future.

The case of Latina was particularly striking: despite political turnover and a complex institutional environment, the municipality maintained its participation throughout the process, showing institutional resilience and commitment to dialogue.

The robustness of the Monithon method was acknowledged throughout the day. Its structure, transparency, and replicability allowed associations to produce insights that were specific, data-driven (when data was available), and framed in constructive terms — qualities that made them more likely to be taken seriously by institutions.

What we learned: reflections from national and local stakeholders

The third panel of the event — focused on lessons learned and future replicability — brought together insights from a wide range of institutional actors: Massimo Allulli (ANCI), Alba Garavet (Metropolitan City of Turin), Viviana Russo (Technical Secretariat of PRigA, Department for Cohesion Policy), and Fulvio Pellegrini (Capacity for Cohesion Programme).

Allulli and Russo identified several structural challenges that continue to limit citizen participation:

  • The uncertainty around the timing and availability of resources for local governments;
  • The fear that engaging with citizens might slow down the delivery of public policies and services;
  • The difficulty in managing conflict or balancing competing interests;
  • And the lack of administrative capacity to process and integrate feedback from below.

However, these obstacles are not insurmountable. As Alba Garavet put it: “We can do it.” She described a long-term collaboration between the Metropolitan City of Turin, the University of Turin, and Monithon, where students were trained in civic monitoring and engaged directly with public officials. This model, active since 2016, has fostered mutual learning and growing trust between institutions and citizens — proving that with adequate support, public participation can become a real asset to local governance.

The road ahead: from pilot to partnership

In his concluding remarks, Massimiliano Pacifico, representing the Lazio Managing Authority, presented a set of proposals to transform this initial civic monitoring experience into a structured and long-term partnership.

The proposals include:

  • A permanently open municipal call to involve stakeholders (partners of Territorial Strategies) over time;
  • A dedicated regional web platform called MONISTER, which aggregates project data, links to OpenCoesione and Monithon, and supports transparency and public access to implementation data. The platform will include short training videos to support citizens in learning about how to monitor projects during all phases and after conclusion;
  • An annual municipal meeting with local partners, modeled on the successful format of this event;
  • And additional initiatives — such as collaboration pacts, expanded communication efforts, new forms of territorial outreach, and participation in European city networks — based on the input of municipalities and associations.

My takeaway: toward a new public culture

From my perspective at Monithon, this initiative confirmed what we’ve believed for over a decade: citizens are not just observers of public policy — they can be co-assessors, co-creators, and co-responsible for its success. The Lazio pilot showed that with the right conditions — transparency, openness, and method — civic monitoring can build new relationships of trust, generate specific and actionable proposals, and help administrations become more responsive.

The determination of the participating citizens, their willingness to learn, and their readiness to continue beyond the project timeline areall signs that something meaningful was set in motion. Our method gave them a framework, but local organizations gave it life.

As we move forward, Monithon remains committed to supporting public administrations, local communities, and institutions that want to adopt civic monitoring as part of their governance strategy — not as an experiment, but as standard practice.

Luigi Reggi

Making civic monitoring matter: reflections from the “Transport for People” event in Warsaw

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On March 13, 2025, I had the opportunity to participate in the “Transport for People” meeting, held at the Center for European Transport Projects headquarters in Warsaw. Organized with the support of European Commission – DG REGIO and the OECD, the event brought together policymakers, researchers, civil society organizations, and academics to explore how citizens can play a role in shaping transport infrastructure and mobility policies.

The audience was composed mainly of civil servants from transportation agencies, both national and local, as well as local government officials and mobility experts from across Poland. Other participants included representatives from civil society organizations, researchers, and practitioners working on participatory governance.

GZM’s pilot project

A key focus of the event was the GZM Citizen Forum on Transport, an inspiring pilot project that tested deliberative citizen engagement in transport planning (here is a brief summary). Developed with the technical assistance of the OECD Open Governance Unit and funded by the European Commission’s DG REGIO, the project aimed to demonstrate how citizen participation can make infrastructure investments more transparent and accountable, particularly for projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

The pilot introduced innovative participatory methods that we at Monithon are considering integrating into our civic monitoring methodology. Among the most inspiring elements were:

  • The combination of citizen input with expert guidance. Citizens engaged in “study walks” alongside transport and policy experts, providing on-the-ground feedback while gaining insights from professionals.
  • The use of random selection to ensure a more representative public participation process. Unlike traditional consultations that attract only the most motivated individuals, the pilot experimented with inclusive selection methods to reach a broader demographic.

At the same time, the event discussions highlighted challenges in implementing deliberative participation:

  • Sustainability of participation: Since the process was designed as a one-time engagement, citizens were not expected to continue their involvement beyond the initial forum.
  • Privacy and data access: GDPR restrictions made it difficult to obtain data on residents, a common challenge across EU countries when trying to implement random selection in participatory processes.
  • Financial incentives for participants: The pilot provided a small stipend for participants, raising questions about whether financial compensation could create bias in citizen selection. The experts leading the pilot responded that the payment was symbolic, covering three days of participation, and was not a strong enough incentive to distort the process.

I look forward to receiving updates on future steps of this action, including when government officials will process suggestions.

Issues in public participation

Beyond the technical aspects of participation, the discussion also touched on broader issues related to when and how to engage citizens in decision-making. In particular:

  • What role should citizens play? Can they provide useful expertise, or are there areas where policy decisions should rely solely on specialists? The border between these two areas remains blurred. One common answer was:
    “Start with a clear diagnosis → Choose the right method → Identify the right target group.”
  • The long timeline of major infrastructure projects. In the transport sector, national projects can take up to 15 years to complete. This raises the challenge of how to ensure that citizen input at the beginning of the process remains relevant years later.

A key takeaway from the discussion was the importance of following up with citizens after participation processes. Too often, people provide input, but never hear back about whether their suggestions were taken into account. Even more critically, it is essential to monitor whether the commitments made in participatory processes are actually implemented.

This is where civic monitoring comes into action. Citizen engagement should not stop at consultation—it should be linked to long-term accountability mechanisms. Ensuring that what was decided on paper actually gets executed is at the core of Monithon’s mission.

The challenge of implementing civic monitoring recommendations

As part of the panel discussion “Good Intentions Are Not Enough: The Hard Reality of Implementing Participatory Solutions,” I shared insights from Monithon’s experience with civic monitoring. In particular, I discussed why, even when citizens provide detailed monitoring reports, recommendations often fail to be implemented.

Monithon mainly operates with a bottom-up approach, meaning that citizens select projects, conduct monitoring, and engage policymakers directly. This model has led to several success stories, such as the Campobasso pedestrian overpass project, monitored by a team of high school students called Walking People and engaged through project At the School of OpenCoehesion. These students didn’t just evaluate the project—they organized interviews, public events, and proposed redevelopment ideas, many of which were implemented. Their engagement helped accelerate the project’s completion, and today, their student-designed logo is a permanent feature of the overpass, symbolizing their civic contribution.

However, this type of success is not always guaranteed. One of the biggest challenges we see is that local governments—who are often the target of monitoring reports—were not the ones who initiated the monitoring process. As a result, they frequently claim that they lack resources, experience, or a culture of participation to act on the findings. This creates a paradox: at the national or regional level, authorities actively promote participatory initiatives, but at the local level, where action is needed, municipalities sometimes struggle to respond effectively.

How can we make civic monitoring more effective?

Institutionalizing Local Accountability Mechanisms. One promising approach is the to create structured but flexible partnership mechanisms between municipalities and civil society. These would ensure that municipalities at least engage with monitoring reports and provide responses, even if they are not forced to adopt recommendations.

Using the Media to Amplify Civic Monitoring Results. One of the most effective ways to ensure civic monitoring has an impact is through media engagement. Monithon has a partnership with Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s leading economic newspaper, to publish investigations based on citizen monitoring reports. With support from DG REGIO, we have also contributed to the training of young female journalists to further develop these stories. This kind of media visibility puts pressure on institutions to respond to civic monitoring findings.

Providing More Support for Local Governments. If municipalities claim they lack resources or expertise, then regional or national institutions should provide direct support through:

  • Training programs to help municipalities work with citizen-generated data.
  • Funding incentives for local governments that actively respond to monitoring results.
  • Technical assistance to guide local administrators on how to implement recommendations effectively.

Moving from participation to impact

Civic monitoring has the potential to make public investments more transparent and effective, but only if institutions—especially at the local level—don’t just receive recommendations but actively respond to them.

At Monithon, we are committed to working with institutions to ensure that civic monitoring isn’t just an exercise in participation—but a tool for real change. The “Transport for People” event highlighted both the possibilities and limitations of participatory processes, reinforcing the need to connect public participation with long-term monitoring and accountability.

Monithon

Italian multi-stakeholder Open Government Partnership forum includes civic monitoring among strategic objectives

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The Italian Open Government Forum (Forum Governo Aperto) has confirmed civic monitoring as one of the strategic objectives contained in the current version of the National Strategy for open government, within the framework of the Open Government Partnership, the international initiative that promotes transparency, citizen participation, the fight against corruption, and the use of new technologies to strengthen public governance.

The Forum, which replaces the Multi-Stakeholder Forum and is therefore composed of representatives from both public administrations and civil society, including Luigi Reggi from Monithon Europe, met last September 19th and 20th at the Department of Public Administration of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

The objective on civic monitoring is part of the broader priority of “Implementing open government practices in areas of significant impact or for reducing inequalities, promoting social equity, and ensuring integrity.”

Here is the text of the objective:

Increase transparency and accountability: enable civic monitoring and evaluation systems on decision-making processes and the public value generated by policies, in order to improve their integrity and transparency.

The aim is therefore to invest in the publication of open data that enables civic monitoring activities by citizens and stakeholders (for example, data on the progress of public projects). Civic monitoring and evaluation focus both on how public decisions are made and on what has been achieved (results and impacts in terms of public value produced). Civic monitoring and evaluation are therefore considered key tools for improving the integrity and transparency of public policies.

Monithon

Eurozine’s Article Highlights Challenges in EU Recovery Fund Transparency – Featuring Insights from Monithon

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A new article in Eurozine tackles the challenges surrounding the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and its implementation across member states. It painstakingly explores critical issues such as transparency, fraud prevention, and the effectiveness of the RRF in achieving its intended goals. Key sources cited in the article are representatives of European institutions and civil society organizations such as the Open Spending EU Coalition.

The article also includes an interview with Dr. Luigi Reggi, co-founder of Monithon, who shares his insights on enhancing accountability and public oversight of EU funds. Dr. Reggi emphasized the importance of civic engagement and public oversight in promoting transparency and accountability. Monithon has been at the forefront of these efforts, working to involve citizens in monitoring EU-funded projects within their communities.

Dr. Reggi advocates for a practical solution that has been proposed by Monithon and other Italian civil society organizations in recent years, such as the umbrella-organization Osservatorio Civico PNRR: replicating the OpenCoesione model. This government platform, which is currently Italy’s national portal for the transparency of EU Cohesion Funds, allows for detailed, accessible data on project funding and progress. These data can be used by the public to monitor and evaluate the use of funds effectively.

Join the Conversation

We encourage you to learn more about Monithon’s ongoing efforts to promote transparency and civic engagement in the monitoring of EU funds by reading our news and projects. Stay tuned for more updates and insights from Monithon on social media!

Monithon

iMonitor Project Presented at the G20 Anticorruption Working Group: Highlights from Panel Discussion

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Monithon Europe had the privilege of being represented by its president Luigi Reggi at the recent G20 Anticorruption Working Group event “Just and Sustainable Procurement for People and Planet” held in Paris, France. This gathering saw key discussions on the role of public procurement and the monitoring of public spending through open data and digital technologies. These topics are central to the G20’s agenda leading up to the summit in Brazil in November 2024, where global commitments, including the recent resolution on digitization, data, and ICTs in procurement, will be finalized.

The event featured prominent panelists such as Sally Guyer and Kristen Robinson from the Open Contracting Partnership, Giuseppe Busia, president of ANAC [here his speech and presentation], and Mr. Henrique de Oliveira Andrade, Chief of Staff of the Secretariat of Internal Control, Office of the Comptroller General, Brazil. Their collective insights underscored the significance of transparency and technological advancements in fighting corruption.

 

G20 (Brasil presidency) Anti-corruption working group meeting

 

The G20, as the primary platform for global economic cooperation, has played a crucial role in leading the global fight against corruption. G20 countries, accounting for 75% of world trade and 80% of global GDP, committed to ensure they have in place “systems of procurement based on transparency, competition and objective criteria in decision-making to prevent corruption” in 2014. They also approved G20 Principles for Promoting Integrity in Public Procurement in 2015 and a G20 Compendium of Good Practices for Promoting Integrity and Transparency in Infrastructure Development in 2019, emphasizing the need for openness and transparency of such procurement. The States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption also committed, in 2021, to “increasing transparency and accountability in the management of public finances and in government procurement, funding and contracting services to ensure transparency in government actions in the use of public funds and during the whole public procurement cycle” to fully implement article 9 of the Convention and approved a resolution entitled Promoting transparency and integrity in public procurement in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development last December.

 

Monithon introduced its latest initiative, the iMonitor project coordinated by the Government Transparency Institute, as a key example of leveraging technology to combat corruption and fraud in public procurement. The project combines data-driven risk assessments with civic monitoring of public contracts, empowering local communities to evaluate the outcomes of public tenders and report actionable findings to law enforcement agencies. This approach highlights the potential of digital tools to enhance the capabilities of citizens in ensuring accountability and transparency in public spending.

Monithon, created in 2013 as an independent initiative supporting citizens in the participatory assessment of the effectiveness of EU projects, has, since 2023, offered a specific methodology and a tool for gathering input on potential misuse of public funding to anyone. The input from local communities is primarily used to foster collaboration with local authorities responsible for local investments, but it can also be forwarded, if deemed relevant, to national anticorruption authorities.

Citizens can select relevant public tenders to monitor on the OpenTender portal, which gathers open government data on millions of contracts in the EU from different official sources and calculates corruption risk indicators for each tender. In Italy, citizens can also start the selection process by identifying an EU-funded project in their town or neighborhood through the Project Finder map, where projects are georeferenced with high precision based on the address. Once they find an interesting project for their community, they can look for related public tenders through the Unique Project Code, which all Italian public administrations use.

 

 

The panel discussion indeed highlighted the importance of including civic actors in the procurement process, by “giving stakeholders clear channels to turn insights from open data on public procurement into policy changes, better resource allocation, stronger contract negotiation and smarter more efficient delivery of goods, services and infrastructure”. For this to happen, citizens should be able to access sufficient training on technical matters.  The discussion also focused on the crucial availability of high-quality and interoperable data, such as those connecting investment projects, public tenders, business registers, company ownership, and beneficial ownership. The AI application ALICE presented by the Brazilian government seems a very promising tool when based on the right data.

We extend our gratitude to the delegates of the G20 countries for their engaging questions and to the French government team for their excellent organization of the event. The outcomes of this session will be shared with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to support the implementation of CoSP resolution 10/9.

For more information about the iMonitor project, visit the iMonitor website.

Monithon

We need more data on how Italian RRF projects are progressing

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The Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) was approved by the European Council on 13 July 2021. Since then, a complex administrative machine has started with the aim of implementing such an ambitious and financially relevant plan. A machine that involved all levels of government, from national to local.

PNRR investments are made through projects. Each project is a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. For example, to achieve the objective of “increasing the educational offer in the 0-6 age group throughout the national territory” it is necessary to build or renovate 2550 nursery schools and create 150,000 new places. Every nursery is a project.

To understand whether investments are being made on time and with the necessary quality, it is essential to have information on all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. Only in this way is it possible to accurately reconstruct the overall data and understand where there are problems, in order to intervene in time.

What is happening now is that this complex administrative machine is struggling to collect information. Some analysts, including those at the Openpolis foundation, have questioned whether the Government really has a clear picture of how PNRR projects are going, especially those managed at a local level.

Without updated data on the progress of the construction sites and related payments, it is really hard to reconstruct a reliable picture of how the PNRR is progressing as a whole and therefore to communicate it to the European institutions and citizens.

One thing is certain. On the website of the official government portal Italia Domani, aimed at communicating the results of the PNRR, there has never been any trace of information on the progress of the projects. Since April 2023, we have known, for example, what projects are called, where they are, how much they cost, which administrations are responsible, and which public tenders are associated. The publication of that data was certainly a big step forward. But we still don’t know which projects are underway or completed, how much funding has been spent, or whether administrative procedures are progressing or blocked.

We promote “civic” monitoring of public funds, based precisely on the analysis of these individual pieces of the puzzle. Without this information, it is much more complicated for citizens to understand and control how the funds are spent, evaluate their effectiveness, and help make the infrastructures and services created more useful and closer to real needs. Reconstructing this information from the bottom up is not impossible, but it is necessary to contact each administration directly, with time and patience, and a response is not guaranteed.

We too therefore join, with the “Dati Bene Comune” campaign and the PNRR Civic Observatory , the Openpolis Foundation’s proposal to send a new #FOIA request on the data of the #PNRR projects and tenders . We ask the President of the Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni and Minister Raffaele Fitto for full transparency on the Plan.

 

▶️ Learn more about the missing data on the PNRR on the OpenPolis website [in Italian]

▶️ Go to the “Dati Bene Comune” campaign on the PNRR [in Italian]

Monithon

Monithon elected as member of the Italian Open Government Forum for 2024-2027 term

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Following the vote on March 4, 2024, the composition for the new mandate of the Italian Open Government Forum (FGA) for the term 2024/2027 has been officially approved. A total of 44 organizations from the Open Government Partnership Italy (OGPIT) community participated in the voting process, including 15 public administrations and 29 civil society organizations.

Monithon, as one of the newly elected civil society organizations, is honored to join the FGA. According to the regulation, the Forum plays a crucial role in governing the OGPIT community, which brings together stakeholders from both the public and civil sectors. The FGA acts as a platform for equal dialogue between organized civil society and institutional actors, with the mission of implementing public policies relevant to the strategy, implementation, and impact monitoring of the national strategy for open government.

Monithon, during its mandate, will act according to the principle of leading by example, contributing to the implementation of commitments in line with the national open government strategy.

Key tasks of the FGA include formulating proposals to define open government policies and their contribution to monitoring and evaluating their impacts, defining co-creation and co-implementation methods for National Action Plans, promoting national dialogue on open government policies, and advocating for open government education, especially among young generations.

Monithon looks forward to contributing to the advancement of open government principles and engaging in this significant collaborative effort to enhance transparency, collaboration, and participation in public governance.

Here is the complete list of the new members of the Open Government Forum.

Government Organizations

  • Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale
  • Autorità nazionale anticorruzione
  • Consiglio Nazionale dei Giovani
  • Dipartimento per la Trasformazione Digitale
  • MASE Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica
  • Dipartimento programmazione e coordinamento della politica economica (DiPE)
  • Regione Emilia Romagna
  • Regione Liguria
  • Regione Puglia
  • Roma Capitale – Dipartimento Decentramento, Servizi delegati e Città in 15 minuti –
  • Scuola Nazionale dell’Amministrazione

Civil Society Organizations

  • Associazione della Comunicazione Pubblica e Istituzionale – Compubblica
  • Centro Culturale San Martino, Regione Puglia – Ets
  • Fondaca, Fondazione per la cittadinanza attiva
  • Fondazione Etica
  • Monithon Europe Ets
  • PAsocial
  • React Srl
  • Scuola Capitale Sociale Aps
  • Stati Generali dell’Innovazione
  • The Good Lobby
  • Transparency International Italia
Monithon

iMonitor, a civic monitoring network to prevent corruption, is launched: join us!

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December 9th is the International Day against Corruption, an opportunity to raise awareness of the consequences of this social, political, and economic phenomenon which affects all countries and deprives citizens of fundamental rights, slows down economic development, undermines the institutions, and the rule of law.

We take this opportunity to announce Monithon’s participation in the iMonitor project network, which has been active for a few months in 4 European countries (Italy, Spain, Romania, Lithuania).

Combining the analysis of public procurement data and the results of civic monitoring to help improve the efficiency of the fight against corruption: this is the key objective of the project coordinated by the Government Transparency Institute, financed by the Internal Security Fund and supported by the Italian national anticorruption authority (ANAC).

Starting from the Opentender platform, which has made public procurement data and corruption risk indicators available, and using Monithon’s reporting tool for citizens dedicated to monitoring public spending, iMonitor will, on the one hand, try to provide useful information authorities to address corruption and fraud in public procurement, on the other hand, to promote civil society networks for ongoing anti-corruption efforts in the 4 European countries/regions involved.

 

To date, the iMonitor network is finalizing a common monitoring reporting template in Spain, Italy, Lithuania, and Romania, and a methodology to engage civic communities in this delicate activity.

The monitoring activities will begin in 2024, and will involve groups of interested citizens with civic monitoring laboratories.

iMonitor brings together Monithon, Oficina Antifrau de Catalunya (Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia), Transparency International Lithuanian Chapter , Romanian Academic Society, National Integrity Agency / Agenția Națională de Integritate (Romania), Collegi de Professionals de la Ciència Política i de la Sociologia de Catalunya (COLPIS, Spain).

 

If want to participate, shoot us a message at info@monithon.eu!

Monithon

Italian government releases open data on Recovery projects

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This is one of the most awaited news by Italian transparency advocates, journalists, and researchers. Two years after the launch of the Italian Recovery Plan (PNRR) and countless calls for transparency, it is now possible to access the information contained in the monitoring system of the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the individual projects financed (“REGIS”).

The data is updated to 1 March 2023 and concerns over 50 thousand validated projects , therefore 10 times more than those published in the last release. The total number of projects, including those not yet validated, is almost 140,000.

Data are published in the Open Data section of the national RRF portal “Italia Domani”. The following tables are available:

 

Our first impression

In the coming days, we will analyze this data to verify its completeness and quality. We aim at contributing to a wider analysis involving content and technical aspects in collaboration with other civil society initiatives such as the Dati Bene Comune transparency campaign.

In the meantime, this data release looks like a big step forward in terms of transparency and accountability of the RRF. Knowing exactly which projects are financed and where, on which topics and with which objectives, it is possible for interested citizens and organizations to verify the progress and the effects of RFF funding on the ground. While other public datasets like OpenCUP contain information about projects only potentially funded by the Recovery Plan, these new data allow to identify which projects are actually being funded by the RRF. Through the Unique Project Identifier (CUP) it is easy for tech-savvy citizens to match RRF data with other existing Italian datasets such as ANAC, Servizio Contratti Pubblici, or OpenBDAP.

Also, information about the location of the projects is included, allowing interesting spatial analyses. The link to the related tenders makes it easier for the users to access the data from the National Anticorruption Authority. Finally, data are accompanied by a minimal set of metadata, briefly explaining the meaning of each variable.

Of course, there is room for improvement. A few initial examples:

  • Unlike government portals like OpenCoesione on EU Cohesion funding, the data on RRF are only published as raw data and included in different tables that need to be matched like in a relational database, through the project ID. This is not an easy job for most citizens, who are required to rely on data intermediaries to make sense of the data.
  • Crucial information is missing on the financial and procedural progress of each project. No information about payments or project status is available, while this should be the main purpose of a monitoring system. No indication is given about when updated data will be released in the future.
  • The description of the projects is sometimes missing or insufficient, making it difficult to understand what the projects are about.
  • Data about actors involved are limited to a subset of the projects and contain only basic information.

We look forward to using these new datasets in our civic monitoring of the Recovery Plan!

 

Monithon

Italian civil society asks the Government for data on the projects funded by the Recovery Plan

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On November 30th, 2022, more than 60 Italian civil society entities (here is the full list, updated daily) representing citizens, associations, groups, movements, universities, and research centers, sent an open letter to the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and to the Minister for the European Affairs, Cohesion Policies and the RRF, Raffaele Fitto, denouncing the serious delay in making available the data that are essential for monitoring the progress of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The campaign is called “Italy Tomorrow, Data Today”, inspired by the name of the government website ItaliaDomani (“Italy for Tomorrow”).

Monithon has been advocating for years for better data on the planning and implementation of EU funding, including, more recently, on the Recovery and Resilience facility. Detailed and high-quality data are essential for allowing citizens to increase awareness of the use of public funding and collect new information on the individual projects funded through interviews or questionnaires. Have a look at our civic monitoring reports in Italy and other EU Countries.

According to Italian civil society, information on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and its management remains scarce and inadequate. The national government website ItaliaDomani does not yet contain information on the funds actually spent. A the moment, only 4 tender procedures and around 5,000 projects are listed. This data is updated to May 2022 and concerns only 1 billion euros.

In short, there is no single and easily accessible place in which to find what projects are funded, where, and how they are progressing.

The following is the complete text of the open letter (here is the original Italian version, which we have translated into English – sorry for any inaccuracies).

 

Civil society asks for transparency on the Recovery Plan with a letter to the Prime Minister

Despite the continuous promises from the Government and Parliament, information on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and its management is still very scarce and inadequate. For citizens, associations, groups, movements, universities, and research centers it is not yet possible to monitor the progress of a project and assess its impact.

The budget law for 2021 committed the Government to detect the financial, physical, and procedural implementation data relating to each project of the PNRR and to make them available in an open format, but there is still very little evidence of all this. Currently, published data do not show the state of implementation, or provide any evidence of the impact at the local level.

In the open data catalog ItaliaDomani, the national portal of the PNRR launched by the Government in August 2021 has the goal of allowing citizens to monitor the implementation of the plan and the progress of each investment. However, at the moment there is no available information on the funds actually spent.

According to the second report to Parliament on the state of implementation of the Plan, sent to the Italian Parliament on October 6th, 73,000 projects should have been uploaded to the REGIS system, a national information system for the monitoring of the Plan. However, in the ItaliaDomani portal we can only find:

  • Only about 5,000 projects
  • Information updated to May 2022, concerning only one billion euros
  • Information on only four tender procedures.

Furthermore, there is no single and easily accessible place where it is possible to access project documents or files, which is essential to understand the projects’ goals and context.

Therefore, citizens cannot find out what interventions will be carried out in their neighborhoods and which will have an impact on their lives. They cannot know anything about the progress of these interventions as well, including the Plan as a whole, which is the sum of the individual projects. They will therefore have no way of forming an opinion and of influencing fundamental choices for the country, for the most part financed with funds borrowed from the European Union.

Obtaining this information, which is essential for citizens to be able to fully exercise their role of control over the work of the public administration, has so far been delegated to the ability or goodwill of individual local administrations, resulting in unequal access to information in different areas of our Country.

As if that were not enough, the absence of information and data accessible to citizens seems to reflect a general lack of reliable data and information also for the decision-makers themselves, who have a duty to guarantee the correct implementation of the plan and to report on it.

The data allowing public administrations to check the actual status of the Plan’s implementation are not yet available, more than a year after the launch of the Plan. On what basis the Government can evaluate the state of implementation of the Plan and assess the impact of investments?

For some time, civil society organizations have been calling for a greater and constant commitment to ensuring transparency in the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Most of these requests have so far gone unheeded.

We therefore ask the new Government for a concrete commitment to publish:

  • All relevant data relating to RRF projects, in an open format and timely fashion
  • Relevant documents and project files for each project funded, following the example of the National Database of Public Contracts or the National Registry of Unfinished Works
  • A quarterly report on the Recovery Plan, with tenders and notices, milestones and targets, approval and progress status (using the example of the data available on the OpenCoesione portal). In particular, a) milestones and targets, b) individual projects (status of approval and subsequent progress), c) calls for tenders and notices
  • Detailed information on the monitoring indicators relating to the three transversal priorities, i.e. reduction of gender, generational and territorial gaps.

The RRF represents an unprecedented opportunity and a challenge for our Country, which involves a substantial commitment and enormous responsibility, considering that a large portion of the funds involves public debt that will concern our generation and future ones. This challenge needs all parties are fully involved, starting with citizens. Transparency and availability of data are the conditions for guaranteeing citizens the possibility of promoting debate and carrying out civic monitoring actions, as well as intervening to avoid waste of public money and wrong public decisions.

#ItaliaDomaniDatiOggi. “Italy Tomorrow, Data Today”. We can’t wait any longer.

Monithon

Let’s talk about open data and education at The State of Open Data Roundtables

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Monithon will participate in the second round of The State of Open Data Roundtables taking place between November 2-4 to gather perspectives regarding the use and impact of open data. The Data for Development Network will convene experts to discuss recent developments around Education, Corporate Ownership, Crime and Justice, Agriculture, and Land Ownership.

Our own Luigi Reggi will discuss perspectives on the use and impact of open data on education in the session “State of Open Data: Education“, hosted by Javiera Atenas, Principal Researcher at ILDA. The panel includes Marwan Tarazi, Director of “Design and Innovation” at the Center for Continuing Education (CCE), Dr. Victoria Marín, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Lleida (Spain), and Priscila Gonsales, Co-founder at Instituto Educadigital.

You can find some background on Open Data and Education in the latest version of the State of Open Data Report.

The session will begin on Wednesday, November 2 at 02:00 pm (CET). Please register here!

The event will also be streamed on YouTube.

 

 

 

Monithon

Welcome Kohesio, the new tool for discovering projects for territorial cohesion throughout Europe

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Well done European Commission! Kohesio – the online platform that collects data and information on over 1.5 million projects financed by Cohesion Policy all over Europe – was launched earlier today by Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, after being published in beta version for a while.

We at Monithon had a look at Kohesio’s contents, which at the moment are only in English, but will be available in all EU languages. On the homepage, Kohesio presents a map that allows you to easily and intuitively discover the European projects active in your territory. The projects can then be further filtered by theme; Research and Innovation, Social Inclusion, Public Administration Efficiency, Climate Change and Risk Prevention are just some of the categories used on the platform.

Kohesio’s source for Italian projects is OpenCoesione, to which Kohesio adds nothing in terms of data quality, georeferencing (projects are displayed on the map at the municipal level), or information return. However, the real value is the opportunity to compare projects funded in all EU countries! Through the project search interface, you can navigate between similar projects in all countries through filters and keyword research. It is also possible to search by funding recipients (beneficiaries). The data can be downloaded in CSV or XLSX format for each country, as separate files for beneficiaries and projects.

We will be testing these tools in our civic monitoring activities during the coming weeks, by focusing on data quality. In the meantime, we suggest the Kohesio’s team at the European Commission to publish APIs: it will be much easier for civic initiatives like ours to access data (only the ones they need), interpret them, and add value.

Edit 9PM: We asked for APIs, but it turns out that a super helpful EU Knowledge graph endpoint is in fact available, which also includes data from Kohesio. Can’t wait to play with it! query.linkedopendata.eu

 

Monithon

Monithon meets the New York Public Library

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Yesterday we had the honor to have a conversation with brilliant Daphna Blatt and Caitlyn Colman-McGaw from the New York Public Library (NYPL) about future applications of civic monitoring in New York City.

Daphna Blatt, who is Director of Strategic Research & Analytics at the NYPL, learned about us in the book Mistrust by our friend Professor Ethan Zuckerman, a well-known media scholar and Internet activist, former director of the MIT Media Lab and now an associate professor of public policy, communication and information at the University of Massachusetts.

Public libraries have a key role in promoting citizen engagement in “smart city” initiatives and cultivating civic impact. In particular, the NYPL is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative institutions and a real beacon of legitimacy and identity in New York. NYPL’s programs combine exceptional expertise in data and information with the ability to act as a facilitator of civic initiatives for public accountability and for increasing trust in public institutions. Have a look at the NYC Open Data portal.

We were impressed by their interest in both Monithon’s method and the At the School of OpenCohesion application. Caitlyn Colman-McGaw, Manager of Young Adult Educational Programming, asked about the emotional response of high-school students when exposed to controversial public issues – a response that eventually leads to creative suggestions for improving public policies.

Our own Luigi Reggi also mentioned EU policies and initiatives for reducing inequality and promoting social inclusion, which are particularly interesting in the context of New York City.

A final recommendation from the NYPL was to collect more detailed information about the civic impact of our monitoring, for example by assessing civic skills and awareness before and after the monitoring activities.

Stay tuned for future developments 🙂

 

 

Cristina Scarasciullo

Civic monitoring of EU policy in Turin shows both positive and negative aspects of funded projects

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On May 21, the student laboratory of the University of Turin – one of the activities of the project “A civic monitoring network for the civic monitoring of the European funds for the environment, promoted by Monithon and Lunaria and co-financed by the European Commission – delivered its results. The event was organized with the support of the Metropolitan City of Turin, Europe Direct Turin and the OpenCoesione initiative of the Department for Cohesion of the Presidency of the Council. The discussion was designed for the students to meet the authorities and hear their positions on the possibilities offered by monitoring.

A training experience not only for the students – involved in monitoring six projects funded by the European Union in the Turin area – but also for the administrators who attended the final event during which the students presented the results of their monitoring, highlighting the shortcomings.

The monitoring activity allowed the students to conduct fieldwork activities and check the progress of the projects – selected through the interactive Project Finder map made available by Monithon -, which also allowed them to meet the recipients of the funded projects, and therefore see the real impact they have on citizens’ lives. What basically emerged during the project was that, although useful and well-realized, the users of the services complain of shortcomings, not only due to the lack of maintenance, but also to the implementation of the interventions, which do not always exactly meet the needs of the beneficiaries of the projects.

After the first phase of “inspection”, the students then contacted the public managers responsible for the National Programme “Metropolitan Cities” to ask for clarification regarding the shortcomings they found. This has therefore made it possible to open a round table with the European Commission and the City of Turin not only on the issue of civic monitoring – a very useful tool in monitoring the management of funds – but also on the importance of involving citizens in all phases of the project for a better success of the project itself.

Read the civic monitoring reports [IN ITALIAN]

 

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Cristina Scarasciullo

Contributor

24-years-old student of Public and Political Communication at the University of Turin. Citizen of the world with Puglia in her heart and a backpack always ready for new experiences. Many different interests that, however, have a passion for writing in common.
Monithon

164 teams from “At School of OpenCohesion” have completed their civic monitoring!

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We want to congratulate the students, teachers, and the “At School of OpenCohesion” team for completing the long civic monitoring program in such a difficult year.

164 monitoring groups – two-thirds of those that started in October last year – have reached the end of the course and are ready to participate in the final selection for finding out which groups will emerge as winners in this edition.

It is an extraordinary result obtained also thanks to the partners and territorial networks that have supported the groups and facilitated the interviews with the subjects responsible for the projects financed by the Cohesion Policies.

Our editorial team supported the groups and commented on the civic monitoring reports that were developed in the third phase of the educational path. The overall quality of the reports is very good, with about 50 reports that resulted particularly effective thanks to their critical analysis, in-depth information, communicative capacity, and the ability to reach a wide audience of subjects in their investigations. About 45% of the reports published on our site received specific comments from our editorial team on the various sections of the report, which guided the development of the research and greatly improved the final result.

READ ALL THE REPORTS HERE, starting with the last one sent.

In such a particular year, it was hard to physically visit the projects, but the students were great at interviewing the responsible parties remotely. To all the teams that have not yet been able to send their Monithon civic monitoring report, we remind you that there is no deadline for sending the report to us!

There is always time to continue monitoring, and we are here to support you.

Monithon

There is a new app in town: Monithon Project Finder helps you discover EU-funded project in your city

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On Friday 16 April was presented to the public the “Monithon Project Finder” – a new web application created by Monithon in collaboration with the designers and developers of Sheldon Studio, starting from the open data published by OpenCoesione, which helps to locate the projects financed in the environmental sector from European funds 2014-2020.

An interactive map allows to perform a search related to funded projects in Italy per municipality and districts: each pin on the map calls out a project. There are over 7 thousand projects displayed, for an amount of approximately 8.9 billion euros, which can be filtered by Municipality, theme, project category, budget, starting year, and implementation progress. The map displays projects financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the 2014-2020 programming period, as classified by OpenCoesione in the following “synthetic themes”: Environment, Energy, Culture, and Tourism. The data update is as of 31st December 2020.

Among the projects, there are all those relating to energy efficiency of public buildings and enterprises, sustainable mobility, prevention and mitigation of hydrogeological risk and climate change, management of the waste cycle, modernization of water networks, wastewater treatment, protection of biodiversity, enhancement of the environmental and natural heritage.

By the means of the Project Finder, the user can select the most interesting projects to evaluate. Once the project has been identified, anyone can start their civic monitoring activities by clicking on the button contained in the description of the selected project. The civic monitor will automatically access the Monithon work area, where she will be guided step by step in the development of the Civic Monitoring Report thanks to the online guide MoniTutor.

4 steps for finding the projects near you and starting the civic monitoring

The map can be navigated freely, although we recommend that you follow the steps below.

1. Locate your municipality

From projectfinder.monithon.eu, the first step is to look for a municipality to start from (top left). The map will focus on the chosen municipality: each dot corresponds to a project, and the color depends on the thematic area (e.g. sustainable mobility or environment). By moving the distance indicator just below right and left, you can establish the size of the radius starting from the center of the municipality, for example to consider only the municipal area, neighboring municipalities or the entire province or metropolitan area.

2. Filter the projects to find something interesting

At the bottom, you can raise the green panel to select the projects: you can filter by “category” (there are 28 and they distinguish the projects on the basis of the main activity carried out), or by budget, year of start, progress and presence of civic monitoring reports on the project, indicating that the same project has already been monitored in the past.

3. Pick a project from the list

To see the resulting list of projects, you need to click on the white panel, bottom right. The projects can be sorted by distance, theme, financial value or starting year.

4. Start monitoring!

By clicking on each project, you access a summary sheet that contains the essential data on the progress and description of the project. From here you can start monitoring: by clicking on the button at the bottom right of the card you will be accompanied immediately (if you are not logged in, just log in) on our work area for creating the report and access all the information and suggestions of the MoniTutor. Of course, you can also access the project sheet by simply clicking on each dot!

“Monithon Project Finder” was created to accompany the activities of the project “A national network for civic monitoring of European funds for the environment and sustainable development”, implemented by Lunaria and Monithon – and co-funded by the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission.