to govern themselves better."

Sir Bernard Crick

Civil participation is a process by which citizens' interests, needs and values are taken into account by the authorities in the decision-making processes. It is a mechanism for effective implementation of the democratic governance and public control over government policies.

Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law, as an organization working for years towards strengthening citizen participation, has developed a draft of a concrete mechanism for organizing and carrying out public consultation in the process of decision-making at Sofia Municipality.

The proposed mechanism for public consultations aims:
• Better planning the process of public consultation at the earliest possible stage;
• To provide timely information to a broad audience of citizens of Sofia Municipality for the upcoming consultative processes;
• To ensure for the most important decisions both written consultations and live discussions;
• To provide feedback and reasons by the administration in terms of received opinions and suggestions in the consultation;
• To introduce the possibility of initiating a public consultation by citizens and civil society organizations;
• To involve representatives of civil society in the formulation of public councils and working groups;
• To ensure continuous monitoring of the process of public consultation with the aim for improving it.

Тhe draft document was submitted to public consultation between August 2 and October 12, 2016, which included:
a.) preliminary written consultations and meetings with other CSO's with experience in citizens participation;
b.) online consultations at a special website for that – www.glasatni.bg ;
c.) public forum with the respective stakeholders for discussing the proposed document and all the suggestions received during the public consultation process.

The final documents from the public consultation and the proposed mechanism will be introduced to the local authority.