Dear community member, 

Today the College discussed with the Ukrainian government EU support to help Ukraine rebuild its cities in a high-quality, sustainable and inclusive way with the New European Bauhaus (NEB) community. 

“Ursula von der Leyen: We will turn the destruction of the war into opportunities to build a beautiful and healthy future for Ukrainians” 

In March, the NEB together with Ukrainian partners (Covenant of Mayors East, Ro3kvit, ReThink) and NEB Partners (Architects’ Council of Europe, Housing Europe and Eurocities) will launch a capacity-building programme for Ukrainian municipalities to prepare the reconstruction. These and other NEB activities in Ukraine will be boosted through a new ‘Phoenix’ initiative. As immediate steps, it will develop and put at the disposal of Ukrainian cities cutting-edge expertise from the NEB community in affordable and sustainable reconstruction. It will also network Ukrainian cities with like-minded ones in the EU to exchange experiences on their way to climate neutrality and more energy efficiency. It will combine funding from the Horizon Europe Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and from the LIFE Programme, with immediate mobilisation of at least €7 million for these preparatory actions. 

 The capacity-building programme will be launched with a set of introductory modules that will offer both inspiration and practical help for different stakeholders within municipalities involved in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Ukraine based on the values of the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus. The modules have a direct link to the reality on the ground as the topics are based on a thorough assessment of the needs of Ukrainian municipalities (Hromadas) conducted in autumn 2022. The introductory modules will be conducted in the Ukrainian and English language with simultaneous translation. 

The pre-enrolment for the first module is already available. The target audience of the module are teams from small, medium and large municipalities in Ukraine. As this module is there to raise awareness for the topic and the capacity-building programme, it is also addressed towards different political levels in Ukraine. 

We ask you to help us spread the word through your communication channels (social media and direct contacts) about the capacity-building programme and invite your Ukrainian partners to pre-enrol for the first module once the press release is published. 

Please find some communication materials you can use to spread the word (under embargo until the press release is public, this afternoon around 17:00): 

• Social media: President von der Leyen quote cards (they can be used as from now)  
• Social media package: visuals (+ editable versions) and copy (available on Spread the Word around 17:00) 
• Press release (available around 17:00) 

Many thanks in advance!  

Best regards,  

NEB unit 

Additional information:  

• Factsheet: EU solidarity with Ukraine  
• EU Academy: Introduction to Capacity Building for Reconstruction  
• NEB Lab project: Actions for Ukraine