In total, 377 cities submitted an expression of interest. This number includes cities from all EU member states, as well as from associated countries. The interested EU cities combined represent over 18% of the EU’s population.

Matthew Baldwin, Manager of the Cities Mission said: “It is going to be a momentous challenge but we will tackle it together. Action against climate change is urgent and citizens deserve the co-benefits of these actions: less air pollution, noise, road congestion and fewer deaths. We want thriving livable cities to regenerate our planet. We will now begin a careful and rigorous process to select the 100 cities with independent experts.”

The goal of the Cities Mission is to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030, and to ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050.

The next steps will be eligibility checks of the submissions and an evaluation process based on an assessment of independent experts.

The selected cities should be announced in spring 2022.

More information on the Cities Mission website.