At its meeting last Tuesday, January 27, the Citizens' Forum of the City of Aachen decided to further develop the Citizens' Council. In doing so, the City of Aachen is strengthening its effectiveness and connection to political and administrative decision-making processes and consolidating its role as an effective instrument of participation. With the planned adjustments, the City of Aachen is underlining its claim to further develop participation not as an end in itself, but as an effective component of democratic decision-making processes.

A central point of the further development is the reorientation of topic identification. In future, the administration will propose topics that are clearly linked to current urban needs for action, ongoing projects and political decision-making processes. This should ensure that the recommendations of the Citizens' Council can be taken up promptly and integrated into existing decision-making and work processes. The final decision on the respective topic is made by the urban community as part of a public online vote via the City of Aachen's participation portal.

What happens next?
Interested people from Aachen have until February 17 to submit their own ideas for topics via the City of Aachen's participation portal. These will be included in the administration's selection of topics, provided they are technically suitable and timely. The list of topics will then be submitted for public online voting via the participation portal. The topic with the highest approval will become the working topic of the Aachen Citizens' Council in 2026.

Albert Halfmann from the Department of Administrative Management, Policy and Dialogue will answer questions about the Citizens' Council by telephone (0241 432-7223) or by e-mail(buerger_innenrat@mail.aachen.de).