Urban Agenda for the EU

This yearly meeting will take place online on the mornings of the 3 and 5 of June 2020. Its goals are to allow for interaction and discussion between the various players of the UAEU and its Partnerships, to take stock of the current situation, and look to the future of the UAEU, which finds itself at a decisive moment. The meeting will also provide an opportunity to address some of the challenges raised in the UAEU Assessment Study.

With over 100 applications, 75 innovative projects in 18 Member States, the Urban Innovative Actions has attracted great interest from urban authorities. In our mission to make EU cities more innovative, greener, more productive and inclusive, we invite you to respond to our questionnaire by 22 May. Please share - the more reviews we get, the better we can respond!

The 4th newsletter of the Partnership is now available. In this edition, you will find contributions by Karen Van Dantzig, Dutch Urban Envoy; Catrien Lenstra, managing director city of Haarlem; and Vassilis Tsanidis, representative of the Region of Central Macedonia; a Summary of the February Partnership Meeting, and much more.

The European Week of Regions and Cities 2019 gave us a chance to catch up with Alexandra Almeida on the work of the Sustainable Land Use Partnership - have a look!

How can cities build alternative community-led housing models? A web-conference held by URBACT and UIA on 24 April explored how cities implement community-led practices for housing. 300 participants shared their ideas and experiences on how to design alternative housing models that meet the residents needs for safe, adequate and affordable housing.

Over the last two years, URBACT has been supporting 36 cities within 4 Implementation Networks designed to focus on different challenges linked to delivering integrated and sustainable strategies for urban development. From this experience, a short guide with practical tools has been developed on becoming ‘implementation ready’.

The call for partners for the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities has just been closed and the organisers are thrilled to reveal that an unprecedented number of applications have been received: over 600! The results of the evaluation process and the final list of partners will be unveiled on 19 May.

Efus invites you every Tuesday and Thursday at 2pm for a series of one hour thematic webconferences. Moderated by our team with contributions of one or more local actors and experts, these online debates will be the opportunity to share your experiences of the crisis.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the biggest crisis of our time. Besides public health, the crisis also implicates the urban dimension and security in public spaces. As more countries, regions and cities are in lockdown, the way we use and organise our public and private spaces changes rapidly.

A lot is currently going on in cities to address housing challenges due to COVID-19. Members of the Partnership on Affordable Housing have listed some examples in this blog.

The OECD has developed a note on cities policy responses to COVID-19, clustered around six categories: communication and awareness raising; workplace and commuting; social distance; vulnerable groups; local service delivery; and support to business.

The Partnership on Innovative Public Procurement has released an infographic outlining the various Actions developed by the Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement, available in 11 different languages.