Back in the day, Kharkiv and Ivano-Frankivsk received these plaques as well, which later helped them win the Europe Prize, which is the highest level of distinction. Kyiv and Lviv received the European Diploma of the Europe Price, which is the first stage on the way towards the highest award. Ternopil has three out of four Council of Europe distinctions.

We decided to see where you can see Vinnytsia in our city transparency ranking.

• Over three years, the city council has managed to increase its transparency by 50%: from 49 to 74.2 points. This means that the city is mostly transparent. 
• In the Transparency Ranking 2017, Vinnytsia ranked only 9th, but for two years straight, it has been firmly set in the top five most transparent cities, along with Drohobych, Pokrov and Mariupol.
• The most transparent sectors in the city are the budget process, utilities, financial assistance and grants.
   

What Can Others Learn from Vinnytsia?

• In 2017, Vinnytsia joined the International Open Data Charter. This means that the city council has undertaken the commitment to publish information about its activities in the form of open data by default.
• In 2018, Vinnytsia was one of the leaders of investment transparency, coming in 4th in 2019. Why? Read here: //bit.ly/2yb0vCa.
• Last year the city already added two international awards to its hall of fame.
  • The first of them is the Child Friendly Cities Inspire Awards, in the category Meaningful Child Participation. This happened thanks to the school participation budget project (bit.ly/2ZtRyj6), which was recognized as the world's best example of engaging children in urban governance. 
  • The second one was the European award CIVITAS 2019. Thanks to innovations in the sector of public transport, Vinnytsia won in the nomination Bold Measure Award.
• Fun fact: Vinnytsia city council has its own Telegram channel to inform citizens about the coronavirus in the city, where it publishes updates and recommendations for city residents.

By the way, on Wednesday, May 27, we will present a collection of best practices to make your city even more transparent, and therefore richer and more comfortable. You can register for the presentation here: //bit.ly/2Zn5sDm.

The Council of Europe is an international organization with 47 member States that recognize the principle of the rule of law and guarantee fundamental human rights and freedoms for their citizens.

The Europe Prize has been awarded to municipalities since 1955 for their contribution into the development of the European cooperation and promotion of European values. What does the reward consist of? It consists of a diploma, a flag, a plaque and the perpetual Europe Prize, as well as a monetary award for training of staff members of winning city councils. The current prize is EUR 20,000.