During the Paris OGP Summit 2017, Germany and Luxembourg were among the European countries that announced their intent to join the Open Government Partnership. Portugal said it will “soon” become a member of the institution.
Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Jamaica also publicly announced their intent to join OGP. All three have already handed their letter of intention to the actual presidency. Morocco is also expected to become a member.
Senegal, Afghanistan, Madagascar and Haiti were also said to consider joining the partnership.
“With our commitment to open government we make an important contribution to more transparency, more participation and more innovation, be it in order to strengthen civic engagement, promote the use of new technologies or meet security needs, ” said Thomas de Maizière, the German the Federal Minister of the Interior, in a prepared statement.
He also explained during the Summit, that he was primarily reluctant. But now, becoming an OGP member, the country will “learn” from the experiences of others. “Openness and transparency” are two key components for Germany and “those two have to be central on the agenda”, he explained.
“While actively working with existing members who are strongly vested in the Partnership, we aim to bring a small number of new countries into the OGP, in particular countries that are willing to a play a future leadership role. Particular emphasis will be given to French speaking African countries, Europe, and Asia,” stated France and the World Resources Institute, who co-chaired OGP.
In his keynote at OGP Summit 2017, French President François Hollande said that extending the OGP community was among his three goals during France’s OGP co-chairing.