Urban Agenda

The Brochure on “the state of play of the Urban Agenda for the EU – Multi-level governance in action” has been published. This online document highlights the diversity and variety of actions and achievements of the Urban Agenda for the EU so far. It also emphasises the role of the Urban Agenda for the EU in building innovative and good governance, working in a more integrated way addressing cross-cutting issues, and in implementing the UN New Urban Agenda.

DG REGIO, with the support of the Technical Secretariat, has developed a table of actions whose main objective is to monitor and track the implementation of the Urban Agenda Partnerships’ Actions. The Table has been filled in cooperation with coordinators and action Leaders and it now contains information from all the 114 Actions of 12 Action Plans.

In the context of the assessment study, the European Commission invites stakeholders to provide feedback to assess the implementation and performance of the Urban Agenda for the European Union (EU) since its launch via the Pact of Amsterdam in 2016. For this assessment, the views of stakeholders are central and you are therefore strongly encouraged to reply to the Stakeholder Consultation.

In the context of the assessment study, the European Commission invites stakeholders to provide feedback to assess the implementation and performance of the Urban Agenda for the European Union (EU) since its launch via the Pact of Amsterdam in 2016. For this assessment, the views of stakeholders are central and you are therefore strongly encouraged to reply to the Stakeholder Consultation.

The OECD Principles on Urban Policy consolidate the lessons from the past 20+ years of work on cities to guide policymakers in building smart, sustainable and inclusive cities.

Today, while national and European leaders discuss the future of Europe, a few meters away so do over 60 mayors and local leaders, representing more than 130 million citizens through the EUROCITIES network.

The call for the selection of the UIA Experts to support the Call 3 projects has now been reopen. The new deadline for applications is the 5th of April 2019.

TAIEX-REGIO PEER 2 PEER is designed to share expertise between bodies that manage funding under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund. It helps public officials involved in the management of these funds to exchange knowledge, good practice and practical solutions to concrete problems thus improving their administrative capacity and ensuring better results for the EU investments.

Starting in 2015, the City of Madrid has hosted an online platform called Decide Madrid. This is designed to promote transparency and to widen public participation in the city’s decision-making and investment processes. Madrid has learned a huge amount through this experience – and it continues to do so. Much of this learning is relevant and applicable to cities of all sizes throughout Europe. As part of its commitment to build cities’ capacity for civic participation, URBACT will co-host an event with Madrid on 11th April 2019.

ESPON has announced the next cut-off date of 28th June for the submission of proposals for Targeted Analyses. Targeted Analyses are powerful means to transfer knowledge, share experience and facilitate the use of European territorial evidence rooted in real place-based policy development processes. ESPON brings together policy makers who share the same kinds of challenges and who are looking for new territorial evidence and a European perspective. ESPON Targeted Analyses deliver demand-driven and tailor-made analytical studies in support of territorial decision-making.

Every year, the European Commission awards those EU-funded projects, which demonstrate excellence and new approaches in regional development. With the goal of inspiring other regions and project managers across Europe, participating projects are in the spotlight of communication activities at European level.

On 12 February, 200 participants gathered at the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels for the JPI Urban Europe policy conference and the launch of the updated Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, SRIA 2.0. The parallel sessions were co-chaired by the Coordinators of the UAEU Partnerships and discussions during the day touched upon JPI Urban Europe as a knowledge hub of relevance to cities.

The 4th policy conference “Urban Transitioning: A joint adventure” will take place on the 12th of February in Brussels. At this event, JPI Urban Europe will launch its updated Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA 2.0). The conference welcomes all actors interested in sustainable urban transitions to engage in discussions and exchange on urban transitions.

The online Public Feedback of the Energy Transition Partnership kicks-off today and will last until 4 March 2019. This would be a unique opportunity for the public to contribute to the five draft actions from the Draft Action Plan.

The European Commission and the European Committee of the Regions are co-organising the Forum "Cities and Regions for Development Cooperation: Local and regional partnerships for sustainable urban development" (formerly called "Assises of Decentralised Cooperation") on 4 and 5 February 2019 in Brussels. The 2019 edition will focus on partnerships supporting sustainable urban development.

The 5th and last call of the Urban Innovative Actions will be launched in Autumn. Preparation has just started with the selection of topics, which are: 1) Air Quality; 2) Circular Economy, 3) Culture and Cultural Heritage and 4) Demographic Change. The topic of “circular economy” will have a particular focus on reduction of single use plastic and on circular urban water management, whereas the topic of “demographic change” will focus on cities facing population decline, i.e. shrinking cities. Full description of the four topics will be published by April.