Urban Agenda for the EU

A call for partners has been opened to welcome applications for joining the 2 new partnerships of the Urban Agenda for the EU to be put in place on Greening cities and Sustainable tourism. Applications for being a partner or a coordinator should be submitted via the EU survey available through the below link and will be welcome until 16 September 2022.

The Cities Forum is a biennial major event of the European Commission that brings together key urban stakeholders from European, national regional and local levels. In the result of an open call for host cities, it has been decided that the Cities Forum 2023 will take place on 16-17 March 2023 in Torino, Italy. Stay tuned for more information to come in 2022.

A new Action Plan of the Innovative and responsible public procurement Partnership has been endorsed as a continuation of its work. 3 new Actions have been chosen, focusing on a procurers platform and reflection board, achieving EU Green Deal goals by using public procurement and innovation as strategic instruments and Sustainable economic recovery through public procurement. Please see the link below to access the Action plan.

The Partnership organised a final meeting and conference in June in Rome to reflect on its work and on how to ensure the continuity of valuable actions with new outputs and to build bridges to future steps. In these next months in 2022, the Partnership will work on summarizing its legacy and finalising its political and strategic recommendations for the EU, Member States as well as regions and cities. Please read the article through the link below for more information.

12 urban and non-urban functional areas will receive technical support for green transition and sustainable development through a pilot project launched by the European Commission and the World Bank. The project aims to strengthen the capacity of participants to plan and finance investments and services across jurisdictional boundaries for green transition and sustainable development. More information can be found through the below link.

The European Commission announced the 20 winners of the first call of the New European Bauhaus dedicated to place-based transformative projects led by small and medium-sized municipalities. The projects are embodying the values of the New European Bauhaus – sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusion – in one of four action areas: renovation of buildings and public spaces; preservation and transformation of cultural heritage; adaptation and transformation of buildings for affordable housing solutions; or regeneration of urban or rural spaces. Find out more through the link below.

In the 2021-2027 programming period for Cohesion policy funds, citizens will be able to participate to decision-making on investments, selection of operations and their monitoring in the context of integrated territorial strategies, sustainable urban development and sustainable urban mobility. The Commission and OECD are joining forces to support public authorities and civil society organisations to develop participatory processes in the management of EU funds through a pilot project notably involving regional and local authorities. More information can be accessed below.

The new ESPON 2030 programme for the period 2021-2027 has been adopted and will be able to build on the work done for the past 20 years to provide quality territorial data and analysis. The programme aims at promoting and fostering a European territorial dimension in development and cooperation by providing evidence, knowledge transfer and policy learning to public authorities and other policy actors at all levels.

The DUT Partnership steps up the game to tackle urban challenges. Through research and innovation, the programme will enable local authorities and municipalities, business, and citizens to translate global strategies into local action. As regards the expected outcomes, the skills and tools will be developed to make urban change happen and boost the urgently needed urban transformations towards a sustainable future with enhanced quality of life in cities.

The European Commission was an active partner of the 11th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF11) that took place in Katowice, Poland between 26 and 30 June 2022. In order to highlight European dimension of the event, there was a series of events under the European Track, with a building block coordinated by the European Commission. Find out more through the article linked below.

On 13 June, NetZeroCities and the European Commission hosted the Let’s Go! Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Kick-off, an event that brought together the 112 cities selected to participate in the Mission for 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030, the European Commission ‘Climate Neutral and Smart Cities’ Mission team and the NetZeroCities consortium with the aim of facilitating contacts and experience sharing between cities, and introducing them to the services provided by NetZeroCities, the Mission Platform.

During the 11th session of the World Urban Forum, JRC successfully launched the European Handbook for SDG Voluntary Local Reviews – 2022 edition. This new edition builds on the first one published in 2020 and it includes an updated analysis of the VLRs published globally and in Europe, their evolution over time and space in terms of use, main characteristics, and building blocks.

A call has been launched by the LIFE programme to support actions that foster the collaboration between local and regional authorities and energy communities and/or actions that develop integrated services to facilitate the emergence and growth of community energy projects. They can target either local authorities collaborating with citizen-led-initiatives cope or be focused on developing integrated services to support community energy. More information is available below and the deadline for applications is 16 November 2022.