About

The European ELoGE Label is the Council of Europe's (CoE) highest recognition for local governments that achieve Excellence in Governance and Democratic Innovation

Since 2017, EUDEL has been the accredited regional platform to implement the Label in Basque Local Councils.

About the Label

The European Label of Excellence in Local Government (ELoGE) is a recognition system driven by the Council of Europe to steer the joint action of local governments towards effective and efficient municipal management, with a focus on sustainability. The Label is an incentive for continuous improvement in governance that impacts the quality of public services, citizen participation and policies that meet their expectations.

The ELoGE methodology consists of an innovative self-assessment system: a benchmark toolkit to measure the degree of compliance of 12 Good Governance principles that represent the fundamental values of European democracy.

See the 12 principles and their indicators

How does it work?
ELoGE advantages
Continuous improvement

Each municipality conducts a self-assessment using the benchmark toolkit of 72 indicators associated to the 12 principles and which provides the following information:
- Description of each principle and a list of the activities that would help the municipality to comply with it.
- Self-assessment section where the municipality must identify its level of maturity in each principle.
- Proof or documentary evidence (online links) that accredit the self-assessment responses.
Citizen, elected official and municipal staff surveys to compare the results.
The municipalities are compared (self-assessments) to debug the responses and look for uniform criteria.
The self-assessments are analysed by the technical secretariat who prepares the result reports (individual and global) and which are confidential.
Based on those reports, the ELoGE Committee decides which municipalities deserve the Label. The award-winners are announced at the recognition ceremony (dodecahedron) by EUDEL and the Council of Europe.

Work can be carried out on governance under the expert methodology of the Council of Europe.
Municipalities can be compared in terms of common criteria.
It offers the opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of local government.
It is a self-assessment tool that is sustainable in time.
It is a system to recognise and disseminate best practices in Europe.
It stimulates continuous improvement governance and public services with citizen involvement.
It is a tool aligned with the 2030 Agenda SDGs.

The ELoGE system is a methacrylate dodecahedron with the 12 European principles of good governance engraved on each of its faces.

Innovation and good governance face new challenges every day and higher stringency levels to be met. Excellence is not a goal in itself, it is a path to be travelled where we continue to learn from our own and others' experiences. (Council of Europe).

Experiences in Basque Municipalities

EUDEL has been the driving force of 4 ELoGE editions in municipalities of different sizes to date. The European tool (indicators) was tested in the first editions to adapt it to the municipal reality of the Basque Country.

WHO CAN OBTAIN THE ELoGE LABEL?

The toolkit adapted by EUDEL for the Basque ELoGE has been endorsed by the Council of Europe and it is valid for municipalities of different sizes and realities. That has been confirmed by the first Basque ELoGEs, from the largest municipality, Bilbao (344,127 inhab.), to the smallest, Urnieta (6,170 inhab). Beyond the mere recognition of the Label, taking part in ELoGE demonstrates the local council's firmest commitment to continuous improvement and the search for excellence.

The Label is renewed every two years in order for the local council to reassess and thus quantify the improvement and embracing of its commitment to good governance.

EXPERIENCES

1^st Edition 2017: 9 participating municipalities

(Basauri, Beasain, Elgoibar, Ermua, Galdakao, Irun, Leioa, Mungia y Urnieta)
Basauri, Ermua, Irún, Leioa and Urnieta obtain the ELoGE Label (march 2018)