Most of the €672.5 billion that the European Commission is investing to help us recover from the Covid-19 crisis will be spent in cities. But how will it be spent, and by whom? On 23 March, city leaders, local experts, academics and representatives of the European Commission will break this issue open during the first day of our Economic Development Forum.
Live streaming
We’ll focus in on the politics of economic recovery, how cooperation between levels of government influences recovery in cities, and the lessons for European economic governance. The discussions and debates will be livestreamed on LinkedIn and right here on this page from 15.00-17.45 CET on Wednesday 23 March.
The forum, ‘Grounding recovery through multilevel governance’ will be hosted online by the city of Mannheim, a hub of local innovation with lots of insights to share on how cities can become more resilient against current and future challenges.
Mayors, Commissioners and more
This livestreamed event will begin with the deputy mayors of Mannheim and Helsinki setting the scene; followed by a European Commission representative and Soo-Jin Kim, Deputy Head of Division Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development at the OECD speaking on how local, national and European governments can work together effectively to bring us out of this crisis.
Then we’ll go head-to-head with a panel debate involving Peter Kurz, Mayor of Mannheim; Franziska Brantner, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Germany; Dragos Pislaru, Member of the European Parliament; Franck Conrad, Head of Unit SG.RECOVER.A.4; and Felipe Araujo, Chair of Eurocities Environment Forum and Deputy Mayor of Porto.
There will be space following this for questions and answers from the online audience.
Members continue
The following two days of the conference will be open to Eurocities members only. There will be a host of workshops for cities and time to engage with representatives of other levels of government.
Day two will examine sustainable financing of affordable and energy-efficient housing and how housing can drive the recovery of urban economies. Through parallel workshops, participants will have a chance to learn more about the possible mechanisms for financing housing recovery.
Day three will unlock the strategies of our host city and their efforts to strengthen long-term resilience by integrating future recovery needs in today’s projects. Examples from the Next Mannheim vision will be showcased together with examples from other European cities.
Eurocities members can register here.
