Berlin-Lichtenberg is a borough in Eastern Berlin, comprising of 251,000 residents and 13 districts. In 2005, under Mayor Christina Emmrich, a new participatory budgeting exercise was launched that continues to this day. It involves regular online and face-to-face exercises in which citizens can make and evaluate suggestions for how to spend the borough’s €31 million discretionary budget. Yearly reports are made on which suggested local projects have been accepted or rejected and reasons for the decision taken by the council.
