The EU's Urban Agenda helps European cities voice their concerns during the development of policies which affect them, such as jobs, mobility, air quality or social inclusion. Thanks to their participation in thematic partnerships on an equal footing with national and local authorities, EU institutions, associations and other concerned parties, towns can promote best practice and proposals for improving the lives of their citizens.

Four new partnerships have been launched this month, on the circular economy (coordinated by Oslo in Norway), digital transition (coordinated by Estonia, Oulu in Finland, and Sofia in Bulgaria), jobs and skills (coordinated by Romania, Jelgava in Latvia, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands), and urban mobility (coordinated by the Czech republic and Karlsruhe in Germany). The coordinators met recently in Brussels to discuss the working methods and objectives of these new partnerships. Corina Creţu, Commissioner for Regional Policy, commented "Engaging in dialogue directly with cities, learning from each other, sharing new ideas and best practice: this is the essence of the Urban Agenda. Europe is about our towns working together on issues which affect our citizens' daily lives". A report on these partnerships will be published by the European Commission at the end of 2017.