On December 7-9, 2016, France will host the 4th Open Government Partnership Global Summit in Paris

More than 3000 people from 70 countries have participated in the summit. The Summit was opened by French President François Hollande. US President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent congratulatory messages.

Summit participants discussed transparency, fighting corruption, sustainable development, climate change policies, digital technology, information access and the use of open governance.

Paris Declaration was adopted at the summit. The declaration stresses the importance of progress on three priority areas.

• To ensure transparency and fight against corruption;
• To achieve sustainable development and to strengthen efforts to prevent climate change;
• The development of digital technologies and ensuring their compliances.

The declaration notes that the biggest success of the OGP for the next five years will be to fulfill the commitments undertaken in the framework of national action plan.

During the discussions at the summit it was stressed that many countries engaged in imitation of the “Open Government”. Therefore, a new term- “openwashing” was created. It can be translated as a “fraud”. This word is used to express how governments and large companies use the trendy word “accountability” to advertise themselves.

It was emphasized during the discussions that in contrast to the principles of OGP only 35% of member countries invite civil society to the direct participation. 53% of the member states prefer only to have consultation with civil society while developing the national action plan. 12% of member countries even do not have such consultations and they only give information about the issue. During the implementation of National Action Plan 39% of the member countries do not held consultations with civil society.

At the seminars held during the Summit it was mentioned that governments were engaged in imitation of ‘information disclosure’.

But, it is clearly defined by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that the information counts available at that time when it is:

1. Suitable for use;
2. Helpful;

Many governments simply disclose a lot of useless information and tend to think they have finished their work.

During the discussions at the summit civil society representatives have been advised to pay special attentions to these issues.

Georgia is distinguished by a high-level representation in the summit among CIS countries. The President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili, who arrived in Paris to attend the summit, was accompanied by the government officials and MPs.

Note that Georgia will preside the OGP in 2017 and the next summit will be held in this country.