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Zaragoza City Council participated in the Digital Assembly 2018, the European Digital Assembly, which has been held in Sofia (Bulgaria) on 25 and 26 June 2018. The event was co-organised by the European Commission and the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

 The Aragonese capital has been invited to participate in the Citizen Focus Action Cluster Meeting, an event that offers attendees a space to share knowledge in different areas. In this edition, the main topics covered were Participatory Budgeting, the Social Commitment of Cities and Data Protection.

The Councilor for Participation, Transparency and Open Government, Elena Giner, has been invited to explain the experience of Zaragoza in the field of Participatory Budgeting, as well as the different initiatives implemented through its Open Government portal: open data, smart city policies on Mobility and energy efficiency, participatory instruments or, for example, the elaboration of collaborative maps within the European MobileAge project, in which Zaragoza also participates.

The workshop in which Elena Giner has taken part aims to gather good practices and recommendations in order to apply the Zaragoza Participatory Budgeting tool to sectoral policies related to mobility or energy efficiency. Zaragoza has been chosen and invited to participate in these sessions because of its commitment to combining face-to-face and digital spaces for participation from an Open Government perspective. Also of particular interest was the experience of the MobileAge project, which is also working to bridge the so-called "digital divide".

The Councilor for Participation highlighted the importance for Zaragoza of being present and being heard in European forums on the importance of this Digital Assembly in Sofia. "It is - she explained - one of the most important spaces for the exchange of knowledge in this field in the world. The fact that we have been invited to participate in it, explaining and putting into value the actions that are developed in our city, positions us as a reference in the field of Open Government and participation policies".

The Digital Assembly 2018 is jointly organised by the European Commission and the Government of Bulgaria, which currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It is an important annual forum that brings together more than 1,000 participants, including political representatives, institutions and companies, to discuss digital policy in the European Union and the application of the latest technological advances.

Other events such as the SCC General Assembly, designed to stimulate investment in civic improvement, are also included in its programme. In this case, the objective is to bring together municipal representatives with industry and the company to find synergies in the promotion of their respective projects.

Zaragoza has been invited, specifically, by the president of the Citizen Focus Action Cluster, Maria Sangiuliano, and by the co-president of the Participatory Budgeting for Inclusive Smart Cities, Michelangelo Secchi.