Bugetare Participativă: Alba Iulia's Online 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.
16 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.
How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page
Alba Iulia's online participatory budget drew 17,970 votes in 2021. Two years later its six winners drew 2704, and the platform lists no edition after 2023.
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 — 1,229 documented projects · 🏙️ 6 more in Alba Iulia · 🗳️ Citizen participation guide · 🏛️ Governance projects
Alba Iulia's participatory budget let residents aged 18 or over who live, work or study in the city propose and vote on projects worth 1,000,000 lei, VAT included, per edition. It ran through bugetareparticipativa.apulum.ro: proposals were filed online, screened by the city hall, and voted on only online, from a validated account, one project per domain. The first edition opened in September 2020. Interest peaked in 2021, with 51 proposals, 24 validated and 17,970 votes cast. In 2022, 18 proposals were filed and 9 found eligible; in 2023, 12 were proposed, six passed the evaluation commission, and those six drew 2704 votes. The platform lists editions from 2020 to 2023 only, and its home page still carries the 2023 call.
📊 Impact
The vote did not settle what got built. Of the five 2020 winners, the 'green stands' to clean the air were dropped after even a cheaper alternative proved too expensive, the proposer putting the price at triple his estimate; in June 2022 a local newsroom found that, after two editions, only the easier projects had been delivered, while the rest sat at procurement, specification or discussion stage. Some results came later: the 2022 winner Re-Creația, a schoolyard at the Avram Iancu school, was handed over by October 2024, and in April 2025 two participatory-budget proposals, a multisport pitch and an inclusive play area, became part of a 3,015,066.7-lei park contract in the Recea district.
🎓 Lesson
Alba Iulia separates the voting from the delivering. A clean online vote, one validated account and one project per domain, produced a list within weeks; the list then entered the ordinary investment pipeline, and the city opened its 2022 call while most of the 2021 winners were still being finished. In 2021 the local press also reported that four of six winners came from members or supporters of the USR party or from people close to the mayor and deputy mayor, which the mayor put down to the proposers' own lobbying. Proposals fell from 51 to 18 to 12, and no source explains why. A participatory budget is judged by what it delivers and how visibly, not by how smoothly the vote runs.
Sources
Show 2 more sourcesShow fewer
📅 How old is the evidence?
Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2020. 6 of 7 sources carry a publication date, from 23 July 2020 to 1 April 2025.
When the sources were published
- Alba24 · pressAlba24 — Cetățenii din Alba Iulia vor decide cum se cheltuiește un milion de lei din bugetul local (23 Jul 2020)
- Alba24 · pressAlba24 — Bugetare participativă acaparată de USR la Alba Iulia (19 Dec 2021)
- Alba24 · pressAlba24 — Realitatea din spatele bugetării participative la Alba Iulia (16 Jun 2022)
- Alba24 · pressAlba24 — Primăria Alba Iulia lansează o nouă etapă de bugetare participativă (1 Sep 2022)
- Alba24 · pressAlba24 — Bugetarea participativă la Alba Iulia: cele șase proiecte vor fi aplicate din 2024 (19 Dec 2023)
- Primăria Municipiului Alba Iulia · city governmentPrimăria Municipiului Alba Iulia — Parc multisport și loc de joacă pentru copii cu dizabilități în cartierul Recea (1 Apr 2025)
Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 16 claims with their sources · the forensic record
Evidence file · public beta 16 addressable claims, 7 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The file is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.
Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 16
The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.
clm-1a238070df72bbd0
quantitative
Alba Iulia's participatory budget let residents aged 18 or over who live, work or study in the city propose and vote on projects
Sources carrying this claim
clm-32c49535d8177ad4
quantitative
worth 1,000,000 lei, VAT included, per edition
Sources carrying this claim
clm-98efe2bfeb2338ca
descriptive
proposals were filed online, screened by the city hall, and voted on only online, from a validated account, one project per domain
Sources carrying this claim
clm-0bad324b462992d1
quantitative
The first edition opened in September 2020.
Sources carrying this claim
clm-aa0a16011b810790
quantitative
Interest peaked in 2021, with 51 proposals, 24 validated and 17,970 votes cast.
Sources carrying this claim
clm-dfe992a69b0395df
quantitative
In 2022, 18 proposals were filed and 9 found eligible
Sources carrying this claim
clm-0bbc527b56b61fd7
quantitative
in 2023, 12 were proposed, six passed the evaluation commission, and those six drew 2704 votes
Sources carrying this claim
clm-15a1320a5d0ab2a4
quantitative
The platform lists editions from 2020 to 2023 only, and its home page still carries the 2023 call.
Sources carrying this claim
clm-358115c73bbd1b76
quantitative
Of the five 2020 winners, the 'green stands' to clean the air were dropped after even a cheaper alternative proved too expensive, the proposer putting the price at triple his estimate
Sources carrying this claim
clm-ec333423a303d6b0
quantitative
in June 2022 a local newsroom found that, after two editions, only the easier projects had been delivered, while the rest sat at procurement, specification or discussion stage
Sources carrying this claim
clm-fb4a1c99ba73c045
quantitative
the 2022 winner Re-Creația, a schoolyard at the Avram Iancu school, was handed over by October 2024
Sources carrying this claim
clm-780d1c48097a9c33
quantitative
in April 2025 two participatory-budget proposals, a multisport pitch and an inclusive play area, became part of a 3,015,066.7-lei park contract in the Recea district
Sources carrying this claim
clm-bbe9d2948b7ba150
quantitative
the city opened its 2022 call while most of the 2021 winners were still being finished
Sources carrying this claim
clm-db3fce8ff2f76df8
quantitative
In 2021 the local press also reported that four of six winners came from members or supporters of the USR party or from people close to the mayor and deputy mayor
Sources carrying this claim
clm-a97d83eab49bb997
descriptive
which the mayor put down to the proposers' own lobbying
Sources carrying this claim
clm-710da103fd4f2c0d
quantitative
Proposals fell from 51 to 18 to 12
Sources carrying this claim
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders
This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.
Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.
sha256:45aec559bef99f3163e8a9f2b08624a5909080fd319f96194ffe1247740e9884
- 16
- of 16 claims mapped
- 7
- source dossiers
- 6
- publication dates recorded
- 0
- archives linked
- 0
- exact locators
- 0
- content captures hashed
Governance facts carried by the record
- Operator
- Primăria Municipiului Alba Iulia (Alba Iulia city hall)
- Actor types
- city-government
- Funding model
- public
- Funding description
- Alba Iulia's local budget: 1,000,000 lei including VAT per edition. The platform's footer credits the Administrative Capacity Operational Programme project 'Municipiul Alba Iulia – Administrație inteligentă' (SIPOCA 637).
- Cost
- Not recorded
- Ownership
- Not recorded
- Decision rights
- Not recorded
- Exit conditions
- Not recorded
7 source dossiers
Alba24 — Cetățenii din Alba Iulia vor decide cum se cheltuiește un milion de lei din bugetul local (23 Jul 2020)
- Stable source ID
src-9b5eee3758a7ec9b- Publisher
- Name not classified · alba24.ro
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2020-07-23
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-05
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-05
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The rules put to the council for the first session: online proposals on bugetareparticipativa.apulum.ro from September 2020 by residents aged 18 or over, screening by the city hall, voting only online from a valid account with one project per domain, and a budget of 1,000,000 lei including VAT.
Alba24 — Bugetare participativă acaparată de USR la Alba Iulia (19 Dec 2021)
- Stable source ID
src-b905c3726953dadf- Publisher
- Name not classified · alba24.ro
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2021-12-19
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-05
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-05
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Reports that four of the six 2021 winners were proposed by, or had on their teams, a USR local councillor, two party members and a businessman close to the party, and that the evaluation commission was chaired by a USR vice-president who advised the mayor; the mayor attributed the result to the proposers' lobbying.
- Claims linked
Alba24 — Realitatea din spatele bugetării participative la Alba Iulia (16 Jun 2022)
- Stable source ID
src-4f037abbc5233af2- Publisher
- Name not classified · alba24.ro
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2022-06-16
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-05
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-05
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
A review of what was built from the 2020 and 2021 votes: only the easier projects were delivered, the rest were at procurement, specification or discussion stage; the 2020 'green stands' project was dropped because even the alternative was too expensive, its proposer putting the price at triple his estimate.
- Claims linked
Alba24 — Primăria Alba Iulia lansează o nouă etapă de bugetare participativă (1 Sep 2022)
- Stable source ID
src-d90de20722ac6017- Publisher
- Name not classified · alba24.ro
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2022-09-01
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-05
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-05
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The city hall's figures for 2021 (51 proposals, 24 validated, 6 winners, 17,970 votes), the status of each 2021 winner, the 2022 calendar and eligibility rules (residence, work or study in Alba Iulia, aged 18 or over), and the remark that the new ideas would sit on top of last year's, most of which were still being finished.
Alba24 — Bugetarea participativă la Alba Iulia: cele șase proiecte vor fi aplicate din 2024 (19 Dec 2023)
- Stable source ID
src-7b2e0a3825b868a8- Publisher
- Name not classified · alba24.ro
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2023-12-19
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-05
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-05
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The 2023 edition: 12 projects proposed, six passed the evaluation commission and were supported with 2704 votes; all six, together 1,081,300 lei, to be implemented from 2024.
- Claims linked
Primăria Municipiului Alba Iulia — Bugetare participativă Alba Iulia (platform home page)
- Stable source ID
src-9ff8700367f17235- Publisher
- Name not classified · bugetareparticipativa.apulum.ro
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-05
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-05
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The platform itself: its menu lists projects for 2020 to 2023 only, the 2022 edition had 18 proposals of which 9 were eligible and 3 won, the home page still invites submissions for 1 September to 16 October 2023, and a news item reports the handover of the 2022 winner Re-Creația.
Primăria Municipiului Alba Iulia — Parc multisport și loc de joacă pentru copii cu dizabilități în cartierul Recea (1 Apr 2025)
- Stable source ID
src-26c7d84a44464792- Publisher
- Name not classified · bugetareparticipativa.apulum.ro
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-05
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-05
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The city handed the Recea site to the contractor for a park with a multisport pitch and an inclusive play area, both the result of participatory-budget proposals; the contract is worth 3,015,066.7 lei and runs for 10 months.
- Claims linked
Known limits of this file
- Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
- Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
- A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
- The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.
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📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Bugetare Participativă: Alba Iulia's Online Participatory Budget” — Alba Iulia, Romania. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/alba-iulia-participatory-budget/ (last verified 2026-11-05). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
