"Urban Agenda for the EU" Newsletter Issues

Interested to become a member or a coordinator of a Partnership under the umbrella of the Urban Agenda for the EU? (29/05/2018)

Interview with Valentina Schippers-Opejko: sharing of knowledge and expertise helps European cities to work more efficiently (29/05/2018)

Valentina Schippers-Opejko is the Coordinators of the Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement Partnership from the City of Haarlem, the Netherlands. She answered our questions on the work of the Partnership on Public Procurement.

Energy Transition in Action: workshop at EU Sustainable Energy Week 2018 (05/06/2018)

The 5 June at #EUSEW18, the Partnership on Energy Transition will host a workshop together with the Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) initiative. During the workshop, the coordinating cities (Gdańsk, London and Roeselare) will present the state-of-play of the Partnership discussions and deliverables, including the Orientation Paper and the Action Plan, which is currently being developed by the partners.

Urban Development Network: sustainable development in Italy (12/06/2018)

Registration is still open for the Urban Development Network workshop in Rome, Italy, on 12-13 June 2018. The workshop is open to (metropolitan) cities of Italy, implementing sustainable urban development in accordance with Article 7 of Regulation 1301/2013 (ERDF), as well as to Managing Authorities. Deadline to Register is the 4th June.

Urban Development Network: Integrated Sustainable Urban Development in the Baltic States Workshop (28/06/2018)

Registration is still open for the Urban Development Network workshop on Integrated Sustainable Urban Development in the Baltic States, 28 and 29 June in Liepāja. The workshop is open to the cities of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania implementing sustainable urban development in accordance with Article 7 of Regulation 1301/2013 (ERDF) and to organisations active in urban development in these countries as well as to the Managing Authorities. Other cities may also participate upon request. Deadline to Register is the 18th June.

Call for examples on air quality measures (30/05/2018)

The Urban Partnership for Air Quality has just launched a call for examples of successful (best practices) and unsuccessful air quality measures. The call is open to all interested national, regional and city authorities from the European Union. The general objective of the call is to support the implementation of the Ambient Air Quality Directive by providing knowledge of Air Quality measures.

World Resources Forum - Call for abstracts (30/05/2018)

WRF 2019 will host a series of ‘deep-dive’ workshops as part of the conference program and invites interested organisations to design and submit a workshop proposal now. Under the Title 'Closing Loops - Transitions at work', WRF 2019 wants to show systemic drivers, as well as concrete solutions to make the transition to circular economy work in practice.

PRE-RELEASE! A new interactive webtool shows how EU Cohesion Policy supports integrated urban and territorial strategies (30/05/2018)

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.

Two more Partnerships! (09/05/2018)

10 recommendations for improving cities' access to EU funds for the inclusion of migrants and refugees (03/05/2018)

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.

Is the Local framework suitable to foster employment? (03/05/2018)

The local framework is key when it comes to fostering jobs and skill in the local economy; however, it has some limits. Policy-makers must bear in mind both assets and limits if they want to carry out appropriate policies.

EU Green Week (21/05/2018)

The Green Week 2018 will officially open on 21/5 in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and will close on 25/5 in Madrid (Spain). The high level EU Green Cities Summit will take place in Brussels, 22-24/5. The Partnership on Circular Economy has been invited to organize a session on “Cities needs in transition to a Circular Economy”. Many other events will be related to urban challenges and projects.

EU Sustainable Energy Week (04/06/2018)

The EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW2018) will be organised from 4-8 June 2018 in Brussels. The week consists of the Policy Conference, networking events and an award competition. The Partnership on Energy Transition will organise a workshop.

Urban Innovative Actions Initiative Jobs & Skills Capitalisation Workshop (22/06/2018)

The first capitalisation and dissemination activities of the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative will kick-start with a workshop on the topic of Jobs and Skills in the local economy on 22 June 2018 in the Ateliers des Tanneurs, Brussels, Belgium.

What bottlenecks do cities encounter when managing their path towards climate adaptation? (03/05/2018)

The results from the questionnaire on city challenges related to climate adaptation are now available here. The questionnaire was prepared by the Partnership on Climate Adaptation to identify the main bottlenecks cities find when managing their path towards climate adaptation

The Action Plan on Urban Poverty now available in Polish (03/05/2018)

The final Action Plan of the Urban Poverty Partnership is now available in Polish as well and can be downloaded.

Urban Development Network workshops (21/05/2018)

Urban Development Network is organising workshops in Romania (21 May Bacau), Italy (Rome 12-13 June) and in the Baltic States (Liepāja Latvia 27-28 June). For more information about these events and how to register please follow our InfoRegio website.

Signals from the Urban Development Group meeting in Sofia: Impressive progress but no time for complacency! (12/03/2018)

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.

Last week to share your expertise and give your opinion! (12/03/2018)

We have not developed the ultimate guide towards a circular economy in cities! (12/03/2018)

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.

The Urban Innovative Actions' Fourth Call for Proposal launched soon (13/03/2018)

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.

The Brick-beach project (12/03/2018)

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.

Want to know more about how EU Cohesion Policy supports integrated urban and territorial strategies? (14/03/2018)

The 16th edition European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) (13/03/2018)

This year, the EWRC will take place from 8 to 11 October 2018 in Brussels. The online registration will open on 9 July. If you are interested to organise a workshop, you should apply before end of March.

URBACT City Festival 2018 (13/03/2018)

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.

Launch of the European iCapital of Innovation Award (12/03/2018)

Commissioner Moedas launched the 2018 iCapital awards at the EU Covenant of Mayors Ceremony on 22 February 2018. The deadline for applications is 21 June 2018.

Climate Adaptation: What bottlenecks? (now available in several languages) (12/03/2018)

The Partnership on Climate Adaptation has identified various bottlenecks related to the cities capacity to adapt to climate change and would like to see how relevant these bottlenecks are according to other cities in Europe. To that aim, a questionnaire has been designed to be filled in quickly (less than 5 minutes) and translated in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian.

Survey for local authorities on communicating on air quality (12/03/2018)

The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) warmly invites you as a city representative to answer the below questions on communicating to the public on air quality. This survey is part of activities under the EU’s urban air quality partnership, which brings together urban areas, EU member states, the European Commission and stakeholders to improve air quality in cities and to bring the “healthy city” higher on the local, national and EU agendas as part of the Urban agenda.

Have your say with the Public Feedbacks! (06/02/2018)

First edition of the Urban Academy on Integration: apply now! (16/04/2018)

The Final Action Plan of Urban Poverty is now available (07/02/2018)

The Final Action Plan of Air Quality is now available (07/02/2018)

After the holidays, the Urban Agenda for the EU is back on track! (18/01/2018)

Highlight: Public consultation on EU funds in the area of cohesion (24/01/2018)

Climate Adaptation Strategy: public consultation now open (30/01/2018)

Inclusion Partnership: How to achieve comparable urban integration indicators? (24/01/2018)

European Week of Regions and Cities: check out the video from the 2017 edition (24/01/2018)

European Forum on Eco-Innovation in Sofia (05/02/2018)

Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum and Ceremony (21/02/2018)

Partnership on Public Procurement: 4th meeting coming up (26/02/2018)

Urban Future Global Conference, Vienna (28/02/2018)

Urban Mobility: 5th European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (14/05/2018)

Urban Innovative Actions Initiative (UIA) Call for Proposals (21/12/2017)

The Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) Initiative has launched its third Call for Proposals. The call is aimed at providing urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address urban challenges. The call opened on 15 December and will close on 30 March 2018 at 2pm CET.

2017 is coming to an end, the Urban Agenda for the EU continues! (21/12/2017)

Call for proposals including protection of public spaces (21/12/2017)

Call for proposals including protection of public spaces: cities can apply (at least 2 entities from at least 2 Member States). In order to support the implementation of the Counter-Terrorism Package, the Commission has published within the framework of the Internal Security Fund – Police a call for proposals with the total amount of EUR 18 500 000.

EU Research & Innovation for and with Cities (21/12/2017)

This document provides an overview of the main EU Research and Innovation (R&I) actions for and with cities, promoted both at the European and international level to foster sustainable urban development.

Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018-2020 - Topics related to Cities and Urban Development (21/12/2017)

This document lists calls for innovation actions (demonstration projects) in which cities are a crucial part of the consortium applying for EU funding. These three calls are part of Societal Challenge 5 on 'Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials.

Welcome to the CITIES Forum 2017 (27/11/2017)

The CITIES Forum provides one of this year’s most distinguished events on urban policy, hosted by the City of Rotterdam and organised by the European Commission. Taking place at various locations throughout the city of Rotterdam, with the former cruise ship SS Rotterdam at its heart, the event truly embraced the city and presented it to the conference visitors. Day 1 saw the Partnerships’ workshops and a high-profile opening programme, featuring keynote speeches of Ahmed Aboutaleb (Mayor of Rotterdam), Corina Cretu (Commissioner for Regional Policy), Joan Clos (Executive Director of UN-Habitat), and Kajsa Ollongren (Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands). All of them emphasised cities’ enhanced societal and political role as well as fundamental contribution towards sustainable development.

The summer break is long over... (10/10/2017)

Registration open for the Cities Forum, 27/28 November, Rotterdam (09/10/2017)

This two-day major high-level event of the European Commission will bring together key stakeholders from European, national and local levels to debate the progress of the Urban agenda for the EU, the urban dimension of the Cohesion Policy as well as the EU response to the urban dimension of the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda.

Join the Public Feedback on Air Quality! (09/10/2017)

Don't lose the chance to contribute to shaping the draft action plan of the Urban Agenda Partnership for Air Quality! The Public Feedback is still online for a few days and will close this Friday 13 of October 2017.

The Urban Water Agenda 2030 (10/10/2017)

The Urban Water Agenda 2030 process acknowledges the essential role of cities in water resources management. It is an initiative to encourage, support and enable local governments and their water utilities to take voluntary action for complementing Member States' efforts to meet EU water policy.

Last call for contributions to the Urban Agenda for the EU! (16/08/2017)