Toma nota.../Take note...

Participatory democracy is not real if citizens are not given some degree of control over the budget, be it national or local. Participatory budgeting means above all transparency in budgetary decisions and proper means to openly debate such decisions before they are applied. It is a process allowing citizens to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, giving them the power to influence government decisions about how money is spent. The main problem that must be tackled is how to prevent clientelism as a result of action groups within the debates. Another important problem is that minorities may find their interests being ignored or sidestepped.

Participatory budgeting: A laboratory for democratic learning

May 20.─ Participatory budgeting, democratic deliberation and decision-making by citizens (or residents, though usually of local neighbourhoods), is a fast-growing practice of participatory democracy that began in 1989 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and is now being applied in hundreds, perhaps thousands of municipalities around the world (it can also be applied in organizations, such as non-profits, or within schools as well as many other sites where budgeting can benefit from democratic participation).

Por razones de privacidad, el secreto bancario es una facultad que ejercen las entidades financieras de no revelar los datos bancarios e información privada de sus clientes. Si no existiera esta norma, cualquier persona podría solicitar información en un banco o institución financiera sobre los movimientos de las cuentas de una persona. Esto se prestaría a fraudes, estafas y robos de identidad.

Sin embargo, este secreto bancario debe estar regulado frente a las necesidades fiscales de los países y las obligaciones legales de sus ciudadanos. Aunque Suiza ha destacado como el paradigma del secreto bancario, el gobierno suizo cuidó siempre de mantener un aspecto de legalidad frente a los intereses de otros países. De hecho, Suiza tiene una larguísima tradición bancaria y el secreto bancario del país data de tiempos medievales. Algunos historiadores fijan sus orígenes en los Caballeros Templarios, los cuales llegaron a ser los banqueros de Europa. Pero no fue hasta 1934 que el secreto bancario fue codificado por primera vez en ese país. De hecho, todos los bancos suizos están regulados por la Autoridad Federal Supervisora del Mercado Bancario Suizo (FINMA), que ejerce su autoridad por medio de una serie de leyes federales.

Las bases jurídicas de la protección otorgada por la legislación suiza son las mismas de su protección de confidencialidad entre médicos y pacientes o entre abogados y clientes.

By virtue of its role in the EU institutional set up, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) contributes to strenthening the democratic legitimacy of the European Union by contributing to the development of a more participatory model of society acting both as a privileged interlocutor in the dialogue between civil society organisations and the European institutions and as organised civil society's institutional forum for representation, consultation, information and expression.

Effective participatory democracy is needed to restore credibility to the European Union

Brussels, Dec. 14 (DP.net).─ The EESC called last November for full implementation of Article 11 of the Treaty of Lisbon in order to strengthen democratic legitimacy in the European Union (EU), bringing citizens closer to the EU project and prviding a platform for interaction between the continental institution and its citizens.

The EESC has been active promoting these ideas since March 2010 when the Committee asked the European Commission to publish a green paper on the implementation of the principle of participatory democracy as enshrined in Article 11 of the Lisbon Treaty. This move favored the subsequent promotion of the European citizens' initiative.

Latvia is still one of the poorest countries of Europe and one with large income inequalities. That is the legacy of the Soviet era. But even when Latvia is a land of extremes where 42% of children live at risk of poverty and social exclusion, the state is still able to afford paying 142,000 euros in paternity benefits for one child, and up to 200,000 euros in unemployment benefits. Changes to the law adopted in September will provide a 50% real estate tax discount to large families, but critics argue that Latvian benefits system overall works largely in favor of the wealthy, allowing them to receive huge benefits, while people on small incomes receive minimum benefits. Therefore, they expect their government to emulate some of President Obrama's policies of "taxing the rich"

Latvians hope to join the euro zone in 2014

Nov. 19.─ With the clock ticking until Latvia gets a green light to join the euro zone in 2014, the Baltic state's leaders are pulling out all the stops to demonstrate just how ready it is. But while officialdom is gung-ho, away from the corridors of power the mood is unenthusiastic in this nation of two million, which has emerged from the world's deepest recession and remains locked in an austerity drive.