Cases/VOLIS

VOLIS:
Estonia’s councils,
online

The national system for local democracy: councils met, voted and published decisions online, and residents followed every sitting and took part.

Industry
GovTech
Client
Republic of Estonia, Ministry of the Interior
Product
Local e-democracy platform, 2009–2026
What we did
Design and development, end to end

Who uses it

Council membersPrepare, attend and vote from anywhere
Chairman and secretaryRun the sitting, votes and protocol
ResidentsWatch sittings, propose, vote in polls

VOLIS

  • Meeting preparation
  • Remote participation
  • Electronic voting
  • Automatic protocol
  • Video stream
  • Participatory budgets
  • Polls

Connected to

National digital IDID-card and Mobile-ID: a signature with legal force
State data exchangeX-Road, the backbone linking Estonia’s public registers
Document managementDrafts and decisions in sync
Government portalWho each user is and what they may do

Introduction

Move data, not people.

The Ministry of the Interior commissioned VOLIS in 2009 with EU funding: councils should be able to meet and take legally binding decisions from anywhere, and residents should see and shape them. Aram, M-One’s founder, built the system end to end. It ran for 17 years in Estonia, was piloted in Sweden and the Netherlands, and closed on 1 July 2026.

Solutions

One system for the whole decision: from the draft to the vote, the protocol and the resident watching it.

01. A whole sitting in one system

From the agenda to the published decision, nothing leaves VOLIS and nothing goes back to paper.

  1. 01

    Preparation

    Agenda, drafts and documents sent to members before the sitting.

  2. 02

    Attendance

    Members check in, in the hall, electronically or virtually.

  3. 03

    Agenda

    The agenda is accepted by vote.

  4. 04

    Debate

    Speech requests, amendments and the draft’s final text.

  5. 05

    Vote

    Open, by name or secret, signed with the national digital ID.

  6. 06

    Protocol

    Written automatically as the sitting runs.

  7. 07

    Published

    Decisions, protocol and video go public.

02. Every vote, in the room and online

The hall screen shows each member’s vote in real time, wherever they are taking part from.

Meeting room screen with personalised voting

03. Democracy you can watch

Residents follow the sitting live: video, the agenda and every voting result.

Public view with the live video of a council sitting

04. Real decisions, made by residents

Two numbers from VOLIS itself: a participatory budget and a merger referendum.

Residents chose what the city funds

Participatory budget of Tartu, Estonia’s second-largest city, 2014

92ideas submitted by residents
51taken to public discussions
25put to the public vote

Residents voted on merging their municipality

Online referendum in a rural municipality, 2014

556 votes

304 for merging · 55%252 against · 45%

05. The same system on a phone

The mobile view has the same functions as the desktop one.

Sitting agenda with votingList of sittingsAgenda item with amendments

06. Built in Estonia, piloted abroad

One codebase for every country, with Estonian ID and registries switched off where they don’t apply.

Estonia

The national system for city and municipal councils

  • Tartu
  • Viljandi
  • Kuressaare
  • …and more

Sweden

Pilot for Sweden’s association of municipalities

  • Gotland
  • Nacka
  • +6 municipalities

Netherlands

Open-government lab of a city and a university

  • Deventer
  • Saxion University

07. Seventeen years in service

  1. 2009

    Commissioned

    By Estonia’s Ministry of the Interior, with EU funding. First pilot in one region.

  2. 2013

    Sweden

    First pilots abroad, in two Swedish municipalities.

  3. 2014

    19 councils

    Across Estonia; six municipalities in Sweden and a city in the Netherlands.

  4. 2017

    30+ councils

    15 of them let residents decide part of the budget.

  5. 2026

    Closed

    The service closed on 1 July 2026.

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