In 2016, Openbudgets.eu will reach its first major milestone: the launch of the OpenBudgets.eu platform prototype in October.

In the run up to the launch, we gather input together with the users of the platform. J++ will publish the first stories on the case they are working on: the Football Tax Stories: investigating how local governments subsidise local football clubs and stadiums with your tax money.

CiViO just starts its needs assessment around participatory budgeting tools and platforms. It is our aim to develop tools to make participatory budgeting processes even better. Finally, TI-EU conducts a survey with Members of the European Parliament so that we can tailor the Openbudgets.eu platform to their needs too.

“European Parliament Strasbourg Hemicycle - Diliff” by Diliff - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Behind the scenes we are working on the architecture and design of the platform. You can expect the publication of code-lists, vocabularies, and the first tools in the Spring and Summer of 2016.

The website will document the developments around our platform on this blog and report on developments in the field of budget transparency. We are open to your suggestions for articles and resources that you would like to see featured here.

We will start bringing more project updates and more content through our blog. In May of this year, training materials and webinars are published here. We start with different blog series on budget and transparency in Europe. In the next weeks, you can read about the projects presented at the December workshop. Stay tuned for tweets under #OBEU and more articles.