Open Government

Earlier this month, the Open Data Institute held its Open Data Awards ceremony at Bloomberg's London office, where ODI founders Sirs Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt presented this year's winners.

Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have decided to cooperate on their open government strategies and implementations. To begin with, they will share their national OGP work and jointly promote open data.

Last month, the European Commission approved the Italian National Operational Plan (NOP) "Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014-2020". According to Innovators PA, the "Network for Innovation in the Italian Public Administration" funded by the Department of Public Administration, the principles and instruments of the new plan are based on open government. Transparency, open data, participation, citizen engagement, risk management, preventing and combating corruption, and whistle-blowing (specifically in public procurement) are the main themes.

Three municipalities in Montenegro, Budva, Danilovgrad and Zabljak, have taken the lead in eliminating deficiencies in regulatory and administrative procedures at local level. Citizens and businesses are now able to report problems and barriers on the web site prijavibarijeru.me, along with proposed solutions and an indication of the institution responsible.