Urban practitioners, projects, initiatives, programmes, authorities and policy makers gathered together in Lisbon on September 13-14 on the occasion of the URBACT city festival.

The Urban Poverty Partnership has presented its Action Plan earlier in 2018. Since then, the Partners and Action Leaders are working towards implementation of the proposed Actions, divided into five action clusters : integrated actions, actions to fight child poverty, for the regeneration of deprived urban areas and neighbourhoods, for ending homelessness, and actions addressing the vulnerability of Roma people.

This consultation will assess how well the various better regulation tools used by the European Commission work in practice and contribute to achieving the objectives of its better regulation policy package of May 2015: evaluation, impact assessment, stakeholder consultation, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board, the REFIT Platform and the REFIT Programme.

In 2018 the European Commission launched for the first time ever a European Sustainability Award to reward the efforts and creativity of European people, businesses and organisations turning the global Sustainable Development Goals into concrete solutions and opportunities. For this year's edition, the theme of the award is “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”. If you are interested, apply before 14 September 2018.

LAST MONTH TO APPLY: The 4th edition of the CITIES Forum will take place at the end of 2019 and will welcome 500-600 participants during 1.5 days. Cities interested in hosting and co-organising the CITIES FORUM together with the European Commission are invited to express their interest before 27 August 2018.

Hans Verdonk is the Co-coordinator of the Partnership on Jobs and Skills in the Local Economy (together with the city of Jelgava and Romania) and the EU representative for the city of Rotterdam. Veerle Smit from Ecorys Spain interviewed him on behalf of the Technical Secretariat of the Urban Agenda for the EU during the Partnership meeting in Porto in May 2018.

The Urban Partnership on Air Quality main objective is to improve air quality in cities and bring the ‘healthy city’ higher on the local, national and EU agendas as part of the Urban Agenda. ​As part of their work, the Partnership is developing a Code of Good Practices that aims to provide guidance and inspiration to cities drafting and implementing air quality plans.

The European Commission has put forward ambitious yet realistic proposals for a modern EU budget. It is time for an EU budget that reflects rapid developments in innovation, the economy, the environment and geopolitics, amongst others. The Commission is putting forward modern, clearer and simpler EU financial rules that ensure the EU budget delivers on the issues that matter to Europeans.

STRAT-Board is an interactive mapping tool that provides a visual overview of Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) and Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) strategies currently implemented across Europe. So far, almost one thousand strategies have been mapped within 28 countries. STRAT-Board has been jointly developed by DG REGIO and DG JRC under the umbrella of the Knowledge Centre for Territorial Policies. The Pre-Release is now publicly accessible under the link below.

There are many projects for the inclusion of migrants and refugees financed by EU funds. Cities nevertheless encounter various problems in accessing EU funds for integration. The Partnership on Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees has therefore developed recommendations on how to improve better access to funds for cities.

The terms of reference for fourth Call for Proposals will be published in April. The call will open in October. This year, a new topic for UIA has been launched: Urban Security. Urban Security is the newest addition to the UIA topics, which is why it has been added in the 4th call.

URBACT is organising their third City Festival in Lisbon on 13 and 14 September 2018 this year, on providing solutions to major urban challenges. Registration will open May 2018 at the latest.

With minus 15 degrees, a meter of snow but beautiful sunshine against the backdrop of wonderful mountains, the Urban Development Group (UDG) Group met on 1st March in the National Congress Centre in Sofia to discuss the progress of the 12 urban partnerships. Much attention went to the ‘Bratislava’ Partnership’s draft Action Plans (Circular Economy, Digital Transition, Urban Mobility) and to the progress in the Jobs & Skills Partnership. Both UDG members and Coordinators present shared their enthusiasm on the progress made.

The Urban Innovative Actions Secretariat conducted a series of interviews with the projects selected under the topic "Circular economy", with a special focus on soil management. What is the most innovative elements of their project? What are the main changes they are expecting? What are the main challenges they are confronted with? Hear the feedbacks from BRICK-BEACH project from velez-Malaga, who explains how they intend to regenerate 800 meters of beach with an innovative environment-friendly process.

Few days before the closure of the Public Feedback on draft Action Plans, Håkon Jentoft presents us the Partnership on Circular Economy, its importance for Oslo, the city he represents, and the draft action plan on Circular Economy.