Participatory budgeting programs continue their downward trend
Participatory budgeting programs continue the downward trend seen in recent years. The year 2025 brings new negative records in the implementation of these programs at the level of county capitals and Bucharest. In 2025, only 5 county capitals implemented participatory programs, compared with 10 such programs in 2024 and 15 in 2023 (14 county capitals and one district municipality in Bucharest). Timișoara, Oradea, Pitești, Vaslui, and Cluj-Napoca ran participatory budgeting programs, with the note that in the case of the last two, these were thematically and financially limited programs or initiatives implemented through non-governmental organizations.
When participatory budgeting works
In recent years, we have repeatedly emphasized that participatory budgeting cannot function when it is designed solely as a PR exercise or when it lacks real resources. Unfortunately, most participatory programs have failed not because communities were unwilling to get involved, but because local administrations did not know how to properly use this tool. In many cases, they did not truly commit to the program and treated it very superficially.
What do local administrations that run functional participatory budgeting programs do well?
First, they take real ownership of these programs. This means that the leadership of the city hall genuinely supports them, understands them, actively participates in their stages, and delegates clear responsibilities to designated staff responsible for managing them. A relevant example is the participatory budgeting program in Timișoara, currently the best functioning in Romania, as well as the program in Oradea, now in its fourth consecutive annual session.
Second, participatory budgeting programs must be based on clear regulations, developed and discussed together with the community and the local authority, as well as on well-defined objectives. So far, participatory budgeting in Romania has mainly taken the form of programs designed to address small-scale, specific issues at the neighborhood or community level, with relatively limited budgets.
Third, there must be a clearly structured and transparent process, with well-defined responsibilities for each stage of the program: promotion, project drafting, submission and selection (including necessary adjustments), voting, and—last but not least—implementation and monitoring.
Participatory budgeting in 2025
The figures for 2025 are not encouraging. Participatory budgeting received an allocation of only 3 million RON, compared with 15.05 million RON in 2024 and 22.95 million RON in 2023.
However, there is also some good news. The Municipality of Timișoara organized a pilot edition dedicated to high schools, with very promising results. In Oradea, the fourth consecutive session of participatory budgeting took place. Cluj-Napoca and Vaslui implemented participatory budgeting programs specifically for young people.
The full report (in Romanian language) is available here: Why participatory budgeting fails. Participatory budgeting monitoring report 2025
CRPE and participatory budgeting
At CRPE, we have been writing about participatory budgeting for many years. It is a tool we value and believe can make a real difference in our cities. We hope it will be adopted by as many local administrations as possible and that each year we will be able to share good news in our annual monitoring report.
Our previous reports are available below.
Participatory Budgeting in Romania: A new decline in 2024
What participatory budgeting looks like in Romania
Participatory budgeting in Bucharest (2022)
Bugetarea participativă. Idei pentru regulamente (puțin mai) bune (RO language)