The signing of the agreements of the Chairs in Local Law and PAGODA allows for the continuity of the Chairs during the year 2020, promoting the debate on participation and transparency in a modern society, as well as Valencian self-government within the framework of a progressive political and administrative decentralisation of the State.

Mª Vicenta Mestre highlighted the importance of institutional chairs as specific collaboration tools on specific topics to be developed jointly between the Universitat and the Generalitat. Along these lines, she highlighted "the importance of the continuity throughout this year of these two chairs, which are so closely linked to the reality of Valencian society". Thus, she highlighted the trajectory and the important task carried out by the Valencian civil law chair, recalling that the UV Law Faculty is one of the UV's founding faculties and has been developing its activity uninterruptedly since 1499. The Principal has also stressed the importance of strengthening active citizenship through participation policies that contribute to the structuring of our society.

Rosa Pérez Garijo has pointed out that the Universitat 'is the most important tool for instruction, construction and learning. The agreements that from the autonomous administration we signed with her are an ideal platform to attract the participation of entities that provide knowledge, specialization, research, development and innovation. And, specifically, these chairs play an important role in terms of researching this knowledge and disseminating it’, said Minister of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality.

The event was also attended by the Vice-Principal for Innovation and Transfer, M.ª Dolores Real; the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Director of the Chair of Valencian Regional Law, Javier Palao; the Directors of the PAGODA Chair, Carmen Montalbá and Joaquín Martín Cuvas; the Director General of Democratic Quality, Social Responsibility and Promotion of Self-government, José Ignacio Pérez Rico; and the Director General of Citizen Participation, M.ª Jesús Pérez Galant.

Citizen Participation

The PAGODA chair addresses a current reality in which citizens have incorporated participation, transparency and good governance among their most fundamental demands and concerns.

During this academic year the area responsible for Participation (Faculty of Social Sciences) under the direction of Carmen Montalbá proposes training open to university students with the Participatory Video Lab, and the design of postgraduate training in Participatory Methodologies. As Montalbà pointed out, the main objective of the PAGODA chair 'is to contribute to the improvement of the performance of our democratic institutions and the social fabric, contributing to the formation of a political culture more open to citizen participation and to the accountability and assumption of responsibility by public officials'. For all these reasons, during the last four years, the Chair has been developing several activities under the axis of training and awareness, such as conferences, congresses, courses and seminars, mainly aimed at public administration staff. 

In this legislature we are firmly committed to citizen participation as the center of public policy,' said the Director General of Citizen Participation, M ª Jesus Perez, who stressed 'the need for training and knowledge transfer on issues such as participation to enable the creation of a participatory culture and dissemination to society at large.

Local Law

The Valencian Local Law Chair was created with the aim of becoming an academic space to promote, foster and develop training, research and dissemination activities that can contribute to the knowledge, awareness and social projection of Valencian Local Law, both in its historical aspect and in current legislation, as well as in its development possibilities.

The Dean of the Faculty of Law and Director of the Chair of Local Law, Javier Palao, wished to thank the university community for its work, stating that 'the Chair is based on the work of the Teaching and Research Staff (PDI), the Administration and Services Staff (PAS), the central services of the University and even our students in the Faculty of Law; thanks to all of them for keeping active a Chair that is so necessary for Valencians to recover their legitimate local law'.

The Director General of Democratic Quality, Social Responsibility and Promotion of Self-government, José Ignacio Pérez, thanked the University and the Director of the Chair of Local Law, Javier Palao, for their work in the field of local law. The chair of Local Law and Statutory Development is closely related to the claim of our Statute of Autonomy and as Javier Palao says, more faces since the 2016 ruling of the Constitutional Court,' said Jose Ignacio Perez.