Orçamento Participativo de Lisboa (Lisbon Participatory Budget)
This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.
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Lisbon ran Europe's first citywide participatory budget from 2008, funding 162 projects online and by SMS — then stopped after 2021. A 2025 relaunch attempt collapsed; by April 2026 it was still stalled.
what does this mean?
The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 6 more in Lisbon · 🗳️ Citizen participation guide · 🏛️ Governance projects
Lisbon became the first European capital to run a citywide participatory budget in 2008, letting residents submit and vote on capital projects online at lisboaparticipa.pt or by SMS since 2013. Twelve editions through 2021 funded 162 projects worth over €36 million from nearly 7,000 proposals. No edition has run since; a 2025 relaunch attempt failed for lack of consensus.
📊 Impact
Twelve editions between 2008 and 2021 received nearly 7,000 citizen proposals and funded 162 projects worth more than €36 million. Annual budget ran €5M (2008-2010) then €2.5M from 2011/12 onward. No edition has been held since 2021; a proposal for a 13th edition was withdrawn from a council vote in April 2025 for lack of consensus, and as of April 2026 the programme remained stalled with no announced restart date.
🎓 Lesson
A pioneering, well-used digital participation platform can sit dormant for years once a change of administration withdraws political backing — the portal stays online, but nothing new gets proposed or voted.
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1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Orçamento Participativo de Lisboa (Lisbon Participatory Budget)” — Lisbon, Portugal. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/lisbon-participatory-budget/ (last verified 2026-08-07). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.