Urban Agenda for the EU

Fostering the urban dimensions of EU policies

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Dear Urban Community,

The summer holiday season has officially kicked off and we hope most of you are enjoying some well-deserved relaxation and time away from your homeoffice work stations!

Since our last newsletter, lockdown measures have begun to ease for many of us in Europe, allowing for a slight restoration of some semblance of 'normality'. Total normality is still far off for most of us though.

This did not prevent us from moving ahead with our planned Coordinators' and Action Leaders' Meeting on 3 and 5 June, nor the Joint Meeting of the Partnerships on Culture/Cultural Heritage and Security in Public Spaces on 12 June, both of which took the form of interactive virtual events. These meetings allowed Coordinators and Action Leaders of all the UAEU Partnerships to gather, reflect on and discuss the current state of play of the UAEU and the next steps the project will take in the near future.

You can find more infromation on this below, as well as relevant news, publications and events. We wish you happy reading and a happier summer!

The Urban Agenda for the EU Communications Team

Any questions? Drop us a line at ua.communication@ecorys.com.

News

Coordinators' and Action Leaders' Meeting 2020

The Coordinators' and Action Leaders' Meeting took place in the form of interactive online sessions on the 3 and 5 of June 2020. Action Leaders and Coordinators from all the Urban Agenda Partnerships took stock of the current state of play and looked to the future of the Urban Agenda. You can find the presentations here!

The Urban Agenda in Action!

Our new website has officially been launched! Click on 'more' below to take a look at our new website, showcasing all the Urban Agenda for the EU's Partnerships, Actions and deliverables so far in an interactive, user-friendly format!

Public Feedback of the Action Plan on Security in Public Spaces and Culture/Cultural Heritage

The Partnership on Security in Public Spaces and Culture/Cultural Heritage continued their work despite difficulties related to Covid-19, and are about to launch the Public Feedback on their Action Plans! The Partnerships want to hear the voice of cities and regions on the Actions they have developed. Stay tuned on Futurium and Twitter!

The Energy Transition Partnership has presented their Action 2 deliverable

A deliverable of Action 2 of the Urban Agenda Energy Transition Partnership, the policy recommendation paper on maximising the use of waste heat in cities is now available.

Climate Adaptation Partnership Coordinator interviewed under the CLARITY project

Stefania Manca, Coordinator of the Climate Adaptation Partnership of the Urban Agenda for the EU was recently interviewed on the work and goals of the Partnership under the CLARITY project. Read the full interview here!

New data story on clean urban mobility

The development of sustainable multi-modal mobility is one of the key challenges for European cities and functional urban areas both to mitigate the climate impact of transport and to contribute to quality of life. Use this tool to xplore the data on EU financing of clean urban mobility!

Apply for the Access City Award 2021!

The application to the Access City Awards 2021 is open until 9 September, with special mention category for accessibility of public services in view of COVID-19.

Urban Innovative Actions: 11 new projects will receive EU funding

The European Commission and the French Regional Council of Hauts-de-France, as the entities managing the Urban Innovative Actions (UIA), have finalised the evaluation of the 5th and last call for proposals. Here you can find more information on the selected cities!

The City Science Initiative

This provides cities, city networks, experts and the services of the European Commission an opportunity to reinforce their cooperation and strengthen the science and policy nexus so that science and research can help address urban challenges.

Publications

UIA Knowledge Management Strategy

The UIA adopted a new Knowledge Management Strategy last May. It is designed to enable this transfer as well as pilot mechanisms and actions that contribute to the definition of the future European Urban Initiative and inspire more generally the preparation of the urban dimension of Cohesion policy 2021/27.

Cities in the World: A New Perspective on Urbanisation

This joint OECD-EU report offers lessons for policy to improve livelihoods in all areas around the world, new global evidence on recent and future growth and decline of metropolitan areas, quality of life along the urban-rural continuum, the links between economic development and the urban system, and the consequences of cities’ growth for sustainable development.

The human-centred city: Opportunities for citizens through research and innovation

The European Commission has published a report emphasising the need for citizens to be involved in research and innovation action. This will ensure a human-centred city transition that will provide equal opportunities for citizens and leave nobody behind. The report aims to trigger discussions and inspire strategic planning and investments within Horizon Europe.

Mainstreaming Urban-Rural Linkages in National Urban Policies

UN-Habitat has developed a variety of tools, platforms, and has provided technical assistance to Member States in developing National Urban Policies. In alignment with the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, these policies provide strong territorial dimension to sustainable urbanisation.

COVID-19 responses

The impact of COVID-19 on regional and local governments

The European Committee of the Regions and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development want to know more about the challenges that sub-national government entities are facing, especially in governance, finance and recovery strategy. Share your views through this survey! (deadline: June 30)

Interreg projects against Covid-19

Every action matters in the fight against the impact of COVID-19. Cohesion policy is helping tackle the situation, and there are already 98 Interreg projects tagged with COVID-19 related measures in the keep.eu database, and more keep being tagged. The projects can be easily found by a simple text search term: 'covid'. Take a look!

Events

Save the date for UDN webinars: six building blocks to sustainable urban development

On behalf of Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission, we invite you to save the date for six webinars to take place in the month of November. The aim is to provide insights on how to tackle the main challenges policy-makers face when designing and implementing sustainable urban development strategies supported by Cohesion Policy. Further information will follow in the next newsletter!

8th International Conference on Sustainable Development

The 8th International Conference on Sustainable Development will take place in Rome on 9 - 10 September 2020, and is inspired by the critical challenge of human, environmental, and economic sustainability concerning present and future generations in a global context.

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