The sound of silence
I had planned to write this editorial about last week’s Joint declaration adopted by the European Parliament, Commission and Council on the Conference on the Future of Europe. I wanted to share my disappointment about it for its vagueness, unrealistic planning and mainly because it fails to recognise the role of those that can really bring the feedback and voice of the majority of Europeans on the future of Europe, cities. Sort of sad, because it makes you feel powerless about the EU system which decided to go, once again, for a technocratic institutional exercise that will not deliver much. In any case not enough to demonstrate that the future of Europe can be changed in a direction that people ask for.
Instead, I decided to dedicate this monthly editorial to the memory of one of the many beautiful souls the world has lost in the past year because of Covid. A soul that was so dear to Eurocities. Jana Koleva was the European projects coordinator of the City of Burgas, Bulgaria. She was a young, intelligent and cheerful person, who loved her family, her job, her life. She was a valued colleague in Burgas and a fantastic partner of Eurocities and many of our members. Now she has gone. And like her, so many other souls have flown away because of this virus.
And we hardly find the time to mourn the dead. Many are suffering from the consequences of the pandemic, physically and mentally, and because of the economic and social ramifications of the lockdown. So many more are exhausted because they are in the first lines to fight back and to support those in need. The disruption and the suffering brought about by this pandemic are so big.
Since the start we have all reacted fast and tried to be as resilient as possible, but it is not easy after a full year of this situation. We have all been working double time, trying to see and build on the positive sides of all this and protecting ourselves as much as possible from the scary news. We have become used to the numbers of dead, the sick people and the rising poor. We are holding on to the thought that it will soon be over.
So now I feel it is necessary to pause, to take a moment and breathe. A moment to listen to the sound of silence, to mourn, and reflect on how humanity and empathy are the values that will help us get over these dark times. To think about our future, as individuals, and as society. And in this respect, I believe the best way to honour the dead is to take this as an opportunity, and as a responsibility, to change our world for the better, with more sustainable cities and a greener and fairer future. We owe it to Jana and all the other people like her, but also to our children. And we can draw new strength from our joint effort.
I hope you will join us in our minute, our breath of silence next week – please read more below.
A minute of silence for Europe
One year after the start of the corona pandemic, Eurocities invites everyone to a European minute of silence. The joint commemoration should take place next Wednesday, 24 March, at noon.
“Europe needs a joint moment of reflection,” said Dario Nardella, President of Eurocities and Mayor of Florence. “Let us pause for a minute to mourn the dead, to honour those suffering from the consequences of the pandemic, and to reflect on our own situation – to take a breath in the hectic everyday struggle we all experience.”
As events are not possible at the moment, everyone should observe this minute of silence for themselves. To support a shared experience, Eurocities offers a video live stream with Dario Nardella: “I invite everyone to join and to be silent together for a moment, to commemorate, and to find new strength together.”
The minute of silence will take place on
Wednesday, 24 March, 12:00 CET
The video live stream can be accessed here.
Please let us know if your city wants to promote this and share the invitation, for example on your city’s website. We are happy to provide you with material. Please contact us at communications@eurocities.eu
Fast Forward
What’s coming up for Eurocities? Enjoy a quick sneak peek into our colleague’s home offices to hear what we’re working on in the coming weeks.
Your voice in the EU
ExCom meet with EU on recovery
On 11 March ExCom members met with MEPs Jan Olbrycht and Dragos Pislaru, and with Marco Buti, head of Commissioner Gentiloni’s cabinet, to discuss about the involvement of cities in the recovery.
Marco Buti, one of the first to speak, provided an overview of the state of play on the draft National Recovery Plans so far presented to the Commission. He acknowledged the so far limited involvement of cities in the drafting process, urging mayors to continue working with their national governments in the coming weeks.
In his remarks, Eurocities President Dario Nardella acknowledged the situation and highlighted that cities are willing to do their part to contribute to the EU recovery. Cities are ready to work cross-country, he argued, and can help deliver on the EU flagships (EU wide priorities for the recovery). EU mayors discussed Nardella’s call to join forces and come up with concrete proposals for pan-European projects that could be included in National Recovery Plans.
Next to this, EU mayors had the opportunity to forge strong synergies with the work of the European Union on the involvement of cities in the recovery. MEP Pislaru, co-rapporteur on the Recovery and Resilience Facility, confirmed its commitment to working with mayors to ensure a stronger role in the recovery, including for the development of cross-country projects. He highlighted that consultation of local governments in the RRF is not only important because of legitimacy and transparency, but also to ensure a good quality implementation of the selected projects.
Mayors pointed out that on top of the green and digital priorities necessary to deliver on the Paris Agremeent targets, the National Recovery Plans should properly address social aspects that seemed to have been overlooked in these discussions.
MEP Olbrycht, President of the EP Urban Integroup, made valuable observations on the role of cities in the recovery, highlighting that the issue is not just about giving cities a seat at the table, but it is about making multilevel governance work. Olbrycht stressed that decentralisation in Europe, i.e. devolving more powers from national to local and regional authorities, must become a stronger priority for the European Commission if they want the recovery programme to succeed.
Eurocities joins the Fit 4 Future Platform
The Fit for Future platform is the high-level expert group advising the Commission about how to reduce the regulatory burden in the EU and simplify legislation. Dorthe Nielsen, our executive director, represents Eurocities at the stakeholder group of the platform, alongside the social partners, SME representatives and environmental NGOs.
Member states are represented via a government group and the Committee of the Region is also strongly involved. The Platform is a development of the former REFIT initiative. In this new mandate, the Commission has explicitly recognised the need to include representatives of local and regional authorities, not least as a response to the better regulation work undertaken within the Urban Agenda for the EU.
Our Fit for Future Platform met today to discuss how we can simplify EU laws and make them future-proof.
Find out more here 🡒 https://t.co/88jCC3Wdl4 #EUHaveYourSay #Fit4Future https://t.co/AfLQ9h5Yxc
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) November 26, 2020
At a plenary session on 4 March, the expert group agreed on the work programme for 2021. It includes 15 legislative files for the platform to review, including for example the Ambient Air Quality Directive and e-procurement aspects of EU public procurement rules. The experts will develop opinions on the different legislative files, bringing in evidence on the challenges related to their implementation in the different sectors. As the work gets started in the coming months, we will liaise with our relevant working groups for their input where relevant and consult our members on the aspects to include in the work programme for 2022.
At the plenary meeting, the members of the platform stressed the need to balance de-regulation with the regulatory developments needed to deliver on the Green Deal ambitions and discussed how best to bring in more transversal aspects related to EU’s rules, for example the digital transformation.
The Commission is committed to taking the Platform’s opinions into account to ensure EU laws help people and business, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises.
More information about the Fit for Future Platform here.
The future of the Urban Agenda passes through the ‘roadmap to Ljubjana’
Are you wondering how the future of the Urban Agenda will look and what shape it will take? The Portuguese Presidency has the answer for you. In order to come up with a shared vision and clear structures for the next phase, in the coming months the Presidency will be coordinating the work of cities, member states, and the Commission via thematic working groups to produce a series of input papers. These papers will bring forward recommendations on issues related to governance, priority themes and delivery modes, implementation and support, as well as external linkages of the Urban Agenda.
Following their approval at the Directors General for Urban Matters (DGUM) meeting at the end of May, these inputs will be passed to the forthcoming Slovenian Presidency, which will use this as the basis of the joint work to make the UA operational starting from 2022. This is the ‘Roadmap to Ljubjana’ that is expected to culminate in the Ljubjana Agreement to be signed at the end of November 2021.
Our Working Group Urban Agenda is following this process closely, ensuring that the cities representing our network in the thematic working groups can bring forward a joint vision for cities participation in the next phase of the Urban Agenda.
EU Child Guarantee
‘It takes a whole city to raise a child’ was the conclusion of our event on 18 February where we discussed the findings of our Eurocities report on child poverty in cities with MEPs Brando Benifei and Dragos Pislaru, the European Commission and deputy mayors from Glasgow, Leeds, Ljubljana, Madrid and Milan, and an audience of 140 members.
With this event, we achieved a common ground between cities and the EU institutions on the way forward to fight child poverty. There is a shared sense of urgency to act now to prevent a ‘lost generation of children’. The main takeaways from the debate were:
- There is no acceptable level of child poverty. We need to fight and prevent all child poverty and ensure all children have equal access to the services they need.
- There is no one-size-fits-all solution to child poverty. The key lies in tailor-made policies to address specific local needs. Learning from cities on what works to reduce child poverty is vital.
- Local partnerships around children’s wellbeing are crucial to identifying poverty risk early on and designing targeted measures.
- Investing in children should be at the heart of the EU recovery.
- Making the EU Child Guarantee impactful will take a lot of coordination and cooperation.
Have you missed the event? Check out our highlights, view the recording or read our summary report.
Cities in new European Pillar of Social Rights
The European Commission published the Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights on 4 March. This Action Plan is meant to be the EU’s social agenda for 2030 to complement the EU Green Deal and digital agendas. It sets out the ambition for a strong social Europe that focuses on jobs and skills for the future and paves the way for a fair, inclusive and resilient socio-economic recovery. It proposes three social targets for the EU to achieve by 2030:
- At least 78% of adults in employment
- At least 60% of all adults in skills training every year
- Reduce the number of people in poverty by at least 15 million, of which 5 million children.
The Action Plan recognises that involving local authorities is essential to ensure an effective implementation of the Pillar and it encourages member states to set up coordination mechanisms at national level.
We are pleased that Eurocities is referenced 37 times in the working document accompanying the action plan. Not only is our Eurocities contribution acknowledged, but also the individual city pledges from our ‘Inclusive Cities 4 All’ campaign are recognised as actions to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights at local level. This is a great result of our advocacy from last year!
Read our rapid reaction to the action plan here.
Sustainable tourism – Latest from Portuguese Presidency
The Portuguese Presidency has a high priority to boost recovery and job creation in the tourism sector, which has been particularly affected by the pandemic. While restoring consumer confidence and a better coordination of measures on the free movement of persons, as well as promoting a sustainable, innovative and resilient ecosystem, SMEs will be kept at the heart of the action.
The plan is to focus on short-term actions through which EU should support the tourism sector in the middle of the pandemic, mid-term solutions which will be presented in the Council Conclusions and long-term vision to set the EU Agenda for tourism 2030+.
The idea behind those is to work on sustainable tourism from an economic, environmental and social perspective, with a strong focus on re-skilling, but also to overcome the issue of over-tourism in the post-pandemic reality.
The Presidency will hold a high-level forum on sustainable tourism in Porto next May to highlight the implementation of the results of the European Tourism Convention held in October 2020 and support efforts in the creation of a European innovation network able to sustain the digital transformation. Through fostering a debate on big data and the free movement of such data as a source of tourism statistics, an improvement in the supply of data available to businesses is projected. This forum is open to all relevant stakeholders.
Eurocities is in contact with the Portuguese Presidency and working on the links and synergies among city examples, challenges and policy messages to feed the discussion ahead and for the forum taking place in Porto.
aleksandra.olejnik@eurocities.eu
New Commission strategy for climate adaptation
The European Commission published its new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change on Wednesday 24 February 2021, setting out the pathway to prepare for the impacts of climate change. The main objective of this communication is to shift the focus from understanding the problem to developing solutions, and to move from planning adaptation actions to implementation.
The link between climate resilience and health and the emphasis on nature-based solutions and fresh water are positive steps towards resilience as much as the introduction of the concept of ‘just resilience’ and the support to the reskilling and requalification of workers. We can, however, regret that the strategy does not include a clear timeline for the foreseen actions and does not intend to assess the costs of maladaptation measures.
Eurocities reacted to the publication on 25 February and Filipe Araújo, Chair of Eurocities Environment Forum and Vice-Mayor of Porto took the floor during the European Policy Centre (EPC) online Policy Dialogue ‘The EU Climate Adaptation Strategy: Towards a climate-resilient Europe?’. He took the opportunity to highlight that local and regional authorities have an essential role to play in implementing adaptation; more coordination between sectors and levels of government is needed and protecting the most vulnerable is a necessity.
louise.coffineau@eurocities.eu
The mission of our times: what’s next?
In September 2020, the 100 Climate-Neutral Cities Mission Board delivered its report to the European Commission proposing to deliver climate neutrality in 100 cities by 2030, meaning achieving in 10 years what Europe plans to achieve in 30 years. The Mission will work with pioneering cities to support, promote and showcase them in their systemic transformation to climate neutrality by 2030, making these cities innovation hubs for all cities.
Since the delivery of the report, the European Commission has worked on the implementation plans for the five Horizon Europe Missions, to be published in May/June 2020 and will adopt a communication on the future of the Missions by the end of April 2021. On 15 March 2021, Eurocities organised a meeting with Matthew Baldwin and Rosalinde Van Der Vlies in charge of the 100 Climate-Neutral Cities Mission at the European Commission to exchange with cities. In case you have missed it, the recording is available here.
louise.coffineau@eurocities.eu
A new decade of making cities disability-inclusive
A new Eurocities report on inclusion of people with disabilities sheds light on city strategies and plans to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at local level. It covers 22 cities, divided across 14 EU member states and considers the impact of Covid-19 on people with disabilities, as well as city efforts to ensure no one is left behind during the pandemic.
The report presents policy recommendations in support of the implementation of the new European Disability Strategy 2021-2030 and the European Pillar of Social Rights (Principle 17), with a focus on mainstreaming disability rights in municipal policies, employment and inclusive labour markets, accessibility, and independent living.
You can read the full report here.
New Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy
The European Commission published its long-awaited Smart & Sustainable Mobility Strategy in December 2020, setting milestones to achieve the Green Deal objectives by 2050. Further to this publication, the Committee of the Regions decided to adopt an opinion reflecting the views of local and regional authorities on the strategy. In view of its adoption, the rapporteur for the opinion, Robert van Asten, Deputy Mayor of The Hague, invited Eurocities to participate in a consultation to share our views on the Strategy.
In our contribution, we emphasized the need for EU and national authorities to empower local authorities with the right tools to address transport challenges and to seize the opportunities offered by the digital revolution. As the strategy acknowledges, cities are already at “the forefront of the transition towards greater sustainability.”
The Committee of the Regions’ opinion will feed into the work of the European Commission on the implementation of this strategy. First milestones of the strategy are expected by summer with the revision of CO2 standards for cars and vans and new rules on alternative fuels infrastructure.
Read more here.
No recovery without culture
A new study has been published dissecting the crisis effects on Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) in post-Covid-19 Europe. Requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education, the study proposes policy recommendations to support the sectors, considering three main flagships:
- Ensure a fair work system for the CCS in Europe by:
- Bold policy actions to address the fragile structures of the sectors, especially for the non-standard workers.
- Improving the access to funding.
- Improving legal social rights+.
- Creating a system of minimum fees in order to ensure a decent income.
- Establish a European digital framework that fits the CCS’ DNA through:
- Sustainable relations between creators and digital platforms.
- Enabling digital access frameworks. Access to create content fairly.
- Support CCS as an integral part of innovative and cohesive societies by:
- Artistic freedom.
- Territorial and societal inclusiveness.
- Wellbeing, health and economic development as pillars for the CCS support.
The CCS have a clear potential to be part of the EU recovery, of the solution and the way out of the crisis. However, it needs to be built on a fair long-term sustainable system to avoid perpetuating the massive impact that Covid-19 is already having on the sector.
Your latest opportunities
Join cultural heritage online learning visits
If you work on culture and cultural heritage for a local, regional or national administration, civil society organisation, cultural initiative or project in the EU 27 + UK then this opportunity was made for you.
Visiting one of four host cities, you’ll discuss their successful local policies and projects, top tips, pitfalls and failures, as well as your own local experience, in a private and friendly expert environment. Selected participants will get useful information and ideas for improving or initiating local projects or transferring some of the presented practices.
Apply by clicking here before 12 April by downloading and submitting the application form here, opting for a maximum of two of the practices below. Selected applicants will have confirmation by 23 April.
In Budapest, you’ll focus on social inclusion and cohesion through heritage and culture, including the festival Budapest100, which sees communities all over the city open their doors to the public annually. The visit will touch upon volunteering, local engagement and communication.
In Šibenik, the focus is also on inclusion and cohesion through heritage and culture, oriented around the transformation of an old fortress into a cultural centre. The visit will touch on business models, local engagement and audience development.
In Nantes, the focus is on digitalising the discovery and expression of heritage, including ‘Patrimonia’ a new platform where specialists and citizens contribute to discovery of the rich and diverse local heritage. The visit will touch on co-design, shared management, valorisation of cultural heritage, as well as territorial development and remembrance polices.
In Reggio Emilia, the focus is on heritage renovation, oriented around the transformation of the San Pietro cloisters into an open hub for innovation. The visit will touch on sustainable urban development, digital innovation, social innovation in the form of cooperatives, community cohesion and linking urban spaces and culinary tradition.
User-centricity: What do cities think?
Are you interested in providing user-centric services for your citizens? Would you like to contribute to the development of a measurement tool to support local decision makers and incentivise progress in the creation of user-centric public services?
If you answered ‘yes’, you should consider becoming an associate city of UserCentriCities!
Through UserCentriCities, participating cities will be able to compare each other’s performance in user centric digital government and learn from each other on how to design user-centric services. In addition to fostering a European community of decision makers that share experience, knowledge and lessons learnt about user-centricity, UserCentriCities will deliver a benchmarking dashboard to measure user-centric services and a support toolkit to improve service delivery.
In this EU-funded project, Eurocities will have the role of engaging our members, both to participate actively in the project and to benefit from its results.
Next steps
Beginning of February 2021, UserCentriCities held a co-creation session during which members of the project and newcomers exchanged on the Tallinn Declaration’s principles on e-Government. The session was an opportunity to hear and understand the knowledge base of the cities on each principle, and what the hurdles to complying with those principles were. A document based on the discussion will soon be released. To hone and further detail the results, we will organise a follow-up co-creation session in the coming weeks.
UserCentriCities is always looking for new cities to join! If you are interested in participating in the activities mentioned above, please do not hesitate to contact us.
You can also visit our website https://www.usercentricities.eu/ or join our LinkedIn group.
Join Big Buyers on Climate and Environment
After evaluating an encouraging amount of potential topics for procurement collaboration, the Big Buyers for Climate and Environment secretariat announced the following four working groups to be established under Big Buyers for Climate and Environment:
- Heavy duty electric vehicles for waste collection and street cleaning
- Zero-emission construction sites
- Circular construction
- Digital healthcare solutions
Over the next month it will be determined:
- who will be participating in each group (as lead, as buyer, and as observer),
- the precise focus (in the case of the circular construction and healthcare groups),
- the types of collaborative activity to be undertaken.
Participation is still open to all – even if you have not been involved up to now! Feel free to share this list within your organisations, and if you or your colleagues are interested in taking a role (either as a buyer, or an observer) in any of these groups, please get in touch. Click here to visit the BBCE website and here to read more information on Eurocities’ website!
Up to speed with the Green City Accord?
More than 20 cities from 9 different countries have already signed the Green City Accord. On March 17, the Accord signatories had their first virtual meeting, which was an opportunity to exchange between cities and with the European Commission, and discuss the road ahead. Are you curious about who are the pioneers? Check out our interactive map.
If you are interested in learning more about the Green City Accord, join us for one of the three upcoming online information sessions in March-April (each covering the same programme but in a different language – French, Italian and English). The Green City Accord team will present the initiative and answer all your questions. Register now!
And there’s more… The Green City Accord team, in cooperation with the Committee of the Regions, is organising a session at the EU Green Week on how this initiative can support the delivery of the zero-pollution ambition at local level. Moreover, a call for peer-learning visits will be launched very shortly and a high-level ceremony for signatories is planned for autumn. Stay tuned!
laura.baroni@eurocities.eu; natalia.altman@eurocities.eu
Your tools and takeaways
Fast track to mobility innovation
A problem shared is a problem halved – this was the messages as cities were matched to help each other achieve mobility innovation at the kick-off of the FastTrack project on March 10 to 12. Cities that have valuable, shovel-ready mobility measures will share their expertise with cities that need further capacity building to build a sustainable urban mobility future in this two-and-a-half-year-long project.
And we're off! 🚀
We are thrilled to kick-off FastTrack: a new @EU_H2020-funded project supporting #urban, #periurban & #rural areas to accelerate the roll-out of #SustainableMobility innovations!
Follow us on Twitter and instagram to stay up-to-date on all our progress 🌿 pic.twitter.com/1kJ12v9eOB
— CIVITAS FastTrack (@FastTrackMobi) March 10, 2021
An example of what this ‘FastTracking’ could entail: Tampere, which is looking for urban logistics solutions for dense city centres, could take up measures already implemented in Groningen. The latter has the experience and knows how to effectively engage urban logistics stakeholders and how to set up a zero-emissions logistics zone. A match made in heaven!
This is just one potential of many matches FastTrack will enable within thematic clusters covering urban logistics, clean fuels, new mobility options, active travel, public transport and multi-modal traffic management.
Led by the city ambassadors Antwerp, Bologna, Budapest and Stockholm, together with 20 affiliated cities, these communities of knowledge will be exchanging and benefitting from tailored capacity building as well as expert advice on funding, data management territorial planning, behavioural change and much more.
Check out the project’s Twitter and Linkedin!
Stay tuned and join us on Twitter @FastTrackMobi and Instagram @FastTrackMobi
annecharlotte.trapp@eurocities.eu
Beyond food banks
Food aid was a key tool to help people across Europe during the early phase of the pandemic. But with food poverty on the rise, cities are looking for innovative ways to support people in need in a dignified way. Representatives from more than 70 cities discussed their approach to this pressing issue at the Working Group Food on 5 March.
Madrid presented its ‘family card,’ which offers households in all the city’s municipalities set financial aid to purchase food and other essentials. “It’s a non-stigmatising experience,” said Ana Buñuel, Advisor at Madrid’s Department for Families, Equality and Social Welfare.
Other innovations included a comprehensive food aid mapping from Milan Urban Food Policy Pact leader Milan, social restaurants and community kitchens from Paris and an innovative system involving supermarket gift cards from Riga.
Head over to our website to read more about the session!
Open doors in Budapest
“People had many, many questions because they see a lot of interesting things. Some people like the flowers in my home, others like the pictures, I have a big music collection.” Says 74-year-old Mihály Fekete. His Bauhaus villa in Budapest has long drawn the attention of global aesthetes, including Steven Spielberg, but now, thanks to Budapest100, it’s open to everyone.
Budapest100 is a festival that sees houses all over the city open their doors to the public on around the 100th day of each year. An excellent use of culture for inclusiveness and community development, it was chosen as a case study for our EU-funded Cultural Heritage in Action project. Get an indepth view of the practice, the story, and of the eccentric Mihály Fekete in a feature article here.
Your key to a smart city
Interested in building retrofit, citizen engagement, energy management, urban sharing platforms, smart lampposts and electric mobility? Our EU-funded Sharing Cities lighthouse project was all about bringing technical insights and expertise to your city. Six cities, five years, €25 million – and the results are yours for the taking.
Please feel free to browse the following tools and see which is best for you:
- Webinars: Our series of one hour webinars present an overview of each measure and examples presented by cities of their own experience with implementation. You can check them all out here.
- Smart booklets: Our smart booklets are a light but engaging overview of each measure. Combining insights and examples from cities’ challenges and solutions with basic technical information, these booklets are a great start for those just getting interested in a measure.
- Playbooks: These five in-depth playbooks provide seriously technical explanations of the smart measures. From experts to experts, these documents will help you think about everything from battery choice to app design.
- Replication handbook: How to you harvest the seed of something that works in one city and help it grow in another one? This replication handbook gives some ideas about the successful transfer of knowledge and practices between cities, based on the five-year experience of the Sharing Cities project.
Sharing Cities is a philosophy of exchange and inspiration that found form in a European funded ‘lighthouse’ project – a project meant to serve as a guide for cities throughout the EU and the world. The three lighthouse cities, Lisbon, London and Milan worked with the three fellow cities Bordeaux, Burgas and Warsaw to pilot and exchange information on smart city solutions. The project, which got started in 2016, brought together a huge consortium of 34 partners, representatives from private industry, NGOs and academia from across Europe to contribute to and shepherd the process.
You can learn more about Sharing Cities at www.sharingcities.eu and please get in contact with us if you want further information on how you can benefit from the work carried out.
Tenders e-charging – new handbook
The Sustainable Transport Forum expert group has published a set of recommendations for public authorities on procuring, awarding concessions, licenses and/or granting support for electric charging infrastructure for passenger cars and vans.
The forum’s recommendations, to which Eurocities and many members have contributed, offer practical guidelines for public authorities that are either looking to procure charging infrastructure or to award concessions for its rollout and/or operation. The recommendations offer an overview of different deployment approaches across the EU and identify some best and innovative practices by frontrunners.
A summary handbook is available to provide off-the-shelf best practice examples, ready for use by national, regional and local authorities throughout the EU.
Find the full recommendations here.
matilde.chinellato@eurocities.eu
New Social Affairs strategy 2021-2022
We have a new strategy for our Social Affairs Forum for 2021-2022. Our top priorities are:
- Building Back Fairer Together to drive the social recovery from the Covid-19 crisis by reducing social inequalities through strengthening social inclusion and poverty reduction measures in our cities, tackling (youth) unemployment, improving skills matching and focusing on the future of work and skills, especially green and digital skills, and the role of the social economy in the recovery.
- A Home for Everyone: focus on long-term investments in affordable housing, also through new opportunities under the Renovation Wave, and fighting homelessness by positioning cities as key partners in developing and implementing the new EU initiative on homelessness.
- Welcoming everyone in our cities: focus on managing diversity and social cohesion in our cities through integration and social inclusion of migrants and people with migrant or ethnic minority backgrounds, Roma inclusion, fighting discrimination and racism through positive narratives, fighting child poverty, shaping age-friendly services, integrating health and social care services, and developing territorial approaches to improve the quality of life in the most deprived urban neighbourhoods.
You can read the strategy in its entirety here.
Creative ageing: participation not isolation
The Japanese explain that the secret to living a long life is to have an ‘ikigai,’ a reason for living. Culture is definitely a striking reason to make later life worth living and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe is trying to prove it by conducting a survey targeting Eurocities members.
The survey, which is a part of the Erasmus+ project ‘Creative ageing: cultural participation instead of social isolation,’ aims at investigating how, to what extent and on which legal basis cultural departments in cities which are members of our network promote the cultural participation of older people. The final goal is to explore concrete measures to improve creative ageing.
We strongly encourage you to complete the survey here. It consists of 7 questions and will take you about 10 to 15 minutes. The survey will be open until 30 March.
Events
International Urban & Regional Cooperation
The International Urban and Regional Cooperation programme is an opportunity for your city or region and local stakeholders to pair up with cities in Australia, Asia, North and Latin America and New Zealand to exchange on sustainability and innovation, and to create lasting ties.
Join the online landing event on 14 April, 10.00-11.30 CET to find out how you can join and brainstorm in person for sustainability and innovation with your peers all over the world. Just click here.
As the second phase of the International Urban Cooperation programme (IUC) (2017-2020), IURC will lead and develop decentralised international urban and regional cooperation in sustainable urban development and innovation in key partner countries and regions in line with the external dimension of Europe 2020.
Cities and regions across the EU will be able to cooperate with over 300 local and sub-national governments and their stakeholders (business, academia, civil society) in an international network encompassing Australasia, Asia, Latin America and North America.
In this first IURC webinar, you will be able to hear how to become part of the IURC network and get involved in the programme through city-to-city cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development and region-to-region cooperation in the field of innovation.
Register here.
Cities’ digital decade
The Commission wants a full digital transformation of Europe by 2030. The four areas of work included in the Commission’s vision and targets published on 9 March are: Digital skills, digital infrastructure, digital transformation of businesses and digitalisation of public services.
The city dialogue ‘Cities’ digital decade,’ held today on 18 March 10.00-11.30 is Eurocities’ response to the EU digital plan. The CIO/CDOs from London, Barcelona and The Hague are presenting their city vision and activities as well as current and future challenges and needs for a successful digital transformation in the coming years.
Following the presentation of the EU ambitions for 2030 by the DG CNECT Director for connectivity, Rita Wezenbeek, the panel discussion with the CIOs and the Head of Unit, investments in high-capacity networks, Franco Accordino, is focusing on the connectivity targets. How can we ensure access to very high speed internet and how to speed up and overcome challenges related to 5G rollout in cities? what are the experiences of cities, also recently during the pandemic, to reduce the digital divide? And much more.
You can connect directly via this link at 10.00 CET today, and if you can’t make it, never fear, we’ll communicate the outcomes and takeaways soon. The agenda is available in full here.
You can read the EC Communication here.
Environment Forum: People and planet for the green transition
28-30 April
We are delighted to announce the theme of our Environment forum, hosted online by Porto and Guimaraes: “People and planet for a green transition.” Join us for three mornings on 28, 29 and 30 April as we discuss what it means to transition to a healthy and thriving city for all, explore case studies and analyse how we can achieve the status of a thriving city moving forward.
Driving the green transition through recovery
Wednesday 28 April @ 09.30-13.30 CET
What does it mean to have a ‘green transition’? How can we use recovery strategies to drive the green transition?
Join us as we explore what it means to transition, hold a high-level political debate on driving the transition through recovery and network with our cities to learn how we can localise the European Green Deal through a city showcase (open call – got something to showcase? Get in touch!).
How to enact the green transition locally
Thursday 29 April @ 09.30-12.20 CET
How are cities using recovery to push the green agenda? What tools are available for transitioning to a healthy and thriving city?
Visit Porto from the comfort of your own home, delve into workshops analysing recovery strategies built around a framework to drive the green transition and explore methods for linking local financial budgets to natural resource use.
Local power and strategies for the green transition
Friday 30 April @ 09.30-12.30 CET
How can we build coalitions, break the silos and work across boundaries to drive the transition?
Hop over to Guimaraes this morning, join our workshops exploring the power of local authorities to drive greener markets, learn how political commitment can drive the transition in your city, and join our session on financing the green transition.
Save the date! Registrations will open soon.
Cities’ Social Summit
6 May
If there’s one event this year not to miss on the EU social agenda, it’s the EU Social Summit in Porto on 7-8 May where EU and national leaders are expected to renew, at the highest political level, the commitment to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights and endorse the new action plan. While we are working hard to secure a role for Eurocities at the Porto Summit, we are also taking matters into our own hands to ensure maximum visibility for the role of cities with a digital Cities’ Social Summit on 6 May.
Save the Date in your calendars! We are planning a memorable high-level political discussion online between city leaders and EU leaders. We will have a first roundtable debate with city mayors and EU leaders on the recovery plans and how to connect green, digital and social recovery with the right investments. The second roundtable will be for vice-mayors to discuss with the Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, and MEPs on how to push social policies in the EU forward and how to work together between cities, national governments and the EU to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights action plan. Stay tuned! Agenda and registration will follow soon.
Upcoming Social Affairs events
- 23 March @10.00 – 12.00 – Webinar on ESF+ 2021-2027. Agenda here. Register here.
- 25 March @10.30 – 12.00 – City dialogue on city policies on mitigating effects of crisis on barriers and loneliness. Register here.
- 30 March @14.00 – 16.00 – WG Urban Ageing meeting on the role of cities in the EU debate on ageing and the Silver Deal. Register here.
- 14 April @10.00 – 11.30– Webinar on human rights in cities.
- 20 April @12.00 – 13.30 – WG Employment lunch break exchange on minimum wages and minimum income. Register here.
- End April – WG Migration and Integration & WG Employment: Mutual learning on improving labour market conditions for migrant workers and access to the labour market.
- 27-29 April – WG Roma inclusion: mutual learning on fighting school dropout and acquiring skills for Roma children and youth. Includes an online workshop with on strengthening cities’ role in the National Roma Inclusion Strategies.
- 19-20 May – WG Housing business meeting to exchange on post-covid recovery and affordable housing.
Virtual rendez-vous on sustainable energy
15-16 June
Save the dates for the next editions of the Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum and the EU Sustainable Energy Week.
The 2021 edition of the Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum – Energy Efficiency Finance Market Place will take place exceptionally online on 15 and 16 June. It will include plenary sessions with high-level representatives from the Covenant of Mayors initiative, the investment community and the European Commission. It will also include a showcase of successful projects on financing energy efficiency, climate adaptation, clean mobility and innovative energy planning, and opportunities to exchange on good practices and successful solutions to common challenges.
You can find information including proceedings and presentations from the last edition here.
The EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) will also change dates, and will be waiting for you online on 25 to 29 October 2021 under the theme ‘Towards 2030: Reshaping the European Energy System’. Registrations will open in September.
Make sure to save the dates in your calendar!
eugenia.mansutti@eurocities.eu
‘How to invest in cities?’ European Investment Advisory Hub
The European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH), designed to act as a single point of entry to a comprehensive offer of advisory services and technical assistance, is a partnership between the European Investment Bank Group and the European Commission as part of the Investment Plan for Europe.
Eurocities Working Group Long-term Investment is now collaborating with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to hold a workshop – between April and May – with the aim of involving more and more member cities to partner with EIAH, able to secure support for the identification, preparation and development of investment projects in different sectors.
The workshop expects to provide an introductory presentation of the EIAH and the services provided. EIAH representatives will delve into the areas of interest, its advisor role in the stages of project development, the type of financial support guaranteed, and the lessons learnt during the implementation of projects between 2014-2020.
Furthermore, a showcasing session will be staged to share good practices and provide practical exchanges by cities that have already carried out investment projects with the support of the EIAH. The targeted sectors we identified to be relevant for our members are social services and blue-green infrastructures for climate adaptation.
The cases will be selected via an online survey we will launch ahead of the meeting.
More info and event date to be published soon! Stay tuned!
aleksandra.olejnik@eurocities.eu