Held on 8 April, the first session of the year by the City Assembly approved the report on its activity in 2024. With the consensus of the assembly, the document recaps the most notable actions and activities carried out by the highest advisory body for Barcelona City Council in 2024. Having been approved, the content will now be presented before the Full Council in its May session.

The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, chaired the meeting in the Saló de Cent and welcomed the participants by thanking them for their work “because the assembly works and fulfils its goals and its mission”. The Mayor stressed “the singularity of the City Assembly as a space for participation, in a context when there is so much talk of democratic quality”, as well as the promotion of working groups that in Collboni’s opinion represent plurality very well.

Also attending the session were the Councillor for the Neighbourhood Plan, Promotion of the Elderly and Education, Lluís Rabell, and the Commissioner for Participation, Pedro Aguilera.

A year shaped by the twentieth anniversary

The vice-chairs of the City Assembly, represented by Montserrat Morera from the Barcelona Associations Council (CAB), and Àlex Goñi, from PIMEC Barcelona, presented the content of the report before the rest of the assembly, highlighting the twentieth anniversary of the assembly, an event representing the consolidation of this advisory and participatory body. The anniversary concludes with the central celebration bringing together nearly a hundred people, with other city assemblies at national and international level.

The document also covers the five judgements approved last year: municipal budget 2024, tax by-law 2025, proposed improvements in subsidy calls, measures on anti-racism for migrants and the report in the activity of the City Assembly in 2023. Morera highlighted the value of the nine responses drafted by the municipal government, responding to one of the demands of the Assembly over the last year. In this respect, Jaume Collboni indicated that there would soon be responses to the two judgements approved in December 2024: the judgement on the tax by-law 2025 and the one on anti-racist measures for migrants.

The report also covers the progress made in the last year, such as better coordination with sectoral councils; events such as the “Migration and Anti-racism” meeting, and notable moments such as the Children’s Voice and the subsequent dialogue with members of the City Assembly held in the last plenary session of 2024.

To continue working to improve the functioning of the City Assembly, the report includes a section setting out the challenges and proposals for 2025. Goñi made reference to some of them, such as increased participation by municipal groups in the permanent commission and plenary meetings, affirming the recognition and recommendations that have been useful for public policies and improving engagement with participatory councils in the metropolitan area.

New working groups and medals of honour 2025

As in every plenary session, the assembly reviewed the current status of active working groups: “Communication and visibility”, “Housing” and “Friendly Barcelona: a space for everybody”. Regarding the work of the latter, one notable point was the inclusion of the proposals made by youngsters taking part in the Children’s Voice initiative during their participation in December’s meeting and in the group session of 26 March. A response to the children was given in the closing ceremony on 4 April.

Specifically, the process took into account area 7 (“A child-friendly city where youngsters can live and play outdoors”) and area 8 (“Listening to our opinions and being able to take part in decisions that affect us”) from the Children’s Agenda. In connection with this point, the Mayor of Barcelona announced that a children’s council is to be created.

Finally,  the two candidacies were presented that the City Assembly is putting forward for the  medals of honour 2025: Federació Francesc Layret – Cocemfe Barcelona, an association devoted to the defence of rights and improvement of quality of life of people with physical and organ-related disabilities, and Juan de Dios Ramírez-Heredia, who was the first Roma person to become a Spanish and European member of parliament and was one of the signatories of the Spanish Constitution in 1978. The City Assembly takes part in this honorary recognition from Barcelona City Council by presenting and voting (via Decidim Barcelona) on a candidacy in the field of organisations and another in the individual category.