Cities Forum 2023 – Together for Green and Just Cities

The Cities Forum is a biennial event for cities and regions of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. The 5th edition of Cities Forum was held in Torino, Italy on 16 to 17 March 2023. The event brought together around 750 key urban stakeholders at European, national, regional and local levels who are committed to a green and just future of cities. Around 600 people followed the event online.

The Cities Forum 2023 offered 18 high-level debates, participatory sessions and interactive workshops on cohesion and recovery in cities. The forum engaged 100 speakers from various backgrounds, representing different levels of governance but also other stakeholders from NGOs, EU programmes, and academia, with a gender balance of 55% women speakers. It also provided participants with a unique opportunity to network and discuss the recent developments of various EU initiatives and policies through 11 exhibition stands as well as to explore the host city through 6 site visits of projects financed by ERDF and other European funds.

Following the theme of this year’s edition: Together for green and just cities, the event focused on the role of cities and functional areas in implementing the European Green Deal and the importance of strategic approaches to address the requirements for climate action and environmental protection at local level. It emphasized also the need for the transition to leave no one behind and to consider the just and inclusive dimensions through integrated approaches.

Highlights

Official Launch of the European Urban Initiative

official launch of the European Urban Initiative was the main highlight of the forum as it introduced to a wide audience this key initiative of the European Commission for driving sustainable urban development for the new programming period 2021-2027.

“Nearly 72% of Europeans live in cities, towns and suburban areas that are facing challenges such as unemployment, migration, demography, pollution. The Cohesion Policy support to cities has been strengthened over the years, at least 8% of the allocation from the European Regional Development Fund under this programming period 2021-2027 will be directed to cities. The European Urban Initiative will give the opportunities to urban stakeholders to improve their capacities and access the innovation funding directly for the smart, sustainable and just development of our cities.

In her intervention, Commissioner Ferreira highlighted that the EUI brings together various policy learning instruments, building on previous work, including the Urban Innovative Actions, to promote innovation and capacity and knowledge building.

Region Hauts-de-France Vice-President, Daniel Leca, emphasized that the EUI is providing a coherent offer for urban actors and Managing Authorities across Europe; an offer that is developed in partnership, in order to deliver a dedicated support that meets the needs of the European cities and urban areas.

Cities interested in building their capacities to better design and implement integrated, place-based sustainable urban development strategies will be able to benefit from EUI’s capacity building offer through city-to-city exchanges, peer reviews, and other types of capacity building events.

Finally, the focus put on the European Urban Initiative during the forum also allowed to displaying the current state of play regarding the design of the European Knowledge Platform on urban matters, entitled Portico . Once completed, Portico connects European urban actors with a wide range of knowledge, people and initiatives at EU level.

Urban-rural links

Cooperation is also needed between cities, small and medium-sized urban areas, and rural areas. Cities cannot develop in isolation. Partnerships, equal access to services and investments can build links between these three spheres and ensure their harmonious development. Small and medium-sized cities offer tremendous opportunities and have advantages over cities that make them attractive to new businesses and talents.

‘Cities are not islands. Cities are part of a wider biosphere together with rural areas. If you create a true or partly artificial opposition between urban and rural areas, you all loose. We need to make sure that when we plan for cities, we also look at the planning for the wider surroundings of rural areas. If rural areas flourish, they will feed that into the city as well: it is a win-win’

Green transition

Climate change threatens our existence. It is a complex phenomenon and affects many aspects of our societies and cities, and our response to it must be systemic and coordinated. Various EU initiatives have been created in response, including the EU missions on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and on Adaptation to Climate Change, the EU Covenant of Mayors, Local Digital Twins, the Intelligent Cities Challenge initiatives, and the New European Bauhaus .

Just Cities

While the implementation of new technologies in cities to achieve climate neutrality is important, we should not lose sight of the need for equality. No social groups should be disadvantaged by the green and digital transitions, and innovative ways should be found to challenge existing norms and power structures.

Cohesion policy encourages citizen participation in local development processes and in EU projects. Territorial cooperation, multilevel governance and partnerships are crucial for the next cohesion policy period.

Communication, cooperation and strategic visions

Support for local business development in cities is one important element that encourages urban transformation. The others are having a clear development strategy, funding to improve transport and provide quality housing, public trust in institutions, and public participation. It is crucial for cities to work with other networks or organisations, such as European Urban Initiative or Urbact, to ensure they have the resources to accomplish these aims.

Site Visits

On the morning of the first day, 250 participants visited projects financed by ERDF and other European funds around the City of Torino. The site visits focused on six themes, mirroring the main headings of the Forum: Urban Commons: citizens’ associations create value for the place and the community; Reconversion: from industrial sites to green assets ; Social innovation practices for urban regeneration; Urban Food System & Circular Economy ; Reconversion: from industrial sites into hubs for innovation and Community Hubs: providing community services in neighbourhoods.

Media

The recording of the plenary sessions which were webstreamed online as well as powerpoint presentations from all sessions and workshops are available at the following link

All photos from the event can be found on the official REGIO Flickr account

You can find below some inspiring short interviews from our speakers: VIDEOs short interviews

Special thanks

Organizer: Unit DDG.03 – Inclusive growth, Urban and Territorial Development, DG REGIO, European Commission
Press and social media co-organizer: Unit A2 – Communication, DG REGIO, European Commission
Host: City of Torino
Venue: OGR Torino
Workshop co-organizers: European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, European Urban Initiative, International Urban and Regional Cooperation, Eurocities, Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), World Bank Group
Exhibitors: Italian National Agency for Territorial Cohesion, European Urban Initiative, URBACT Programme, ESPON Programme, European Economic and Social Committee, Joint Research Centre, 2 EU Missions in Horizon Europe: Adaptation to Climate Change and 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030, Covenant of Mayors, Smart Cities Market Place, European Green Capital, Green Leaf Secretariat, Green City Accord, CITIES4CITIES | UNITED 4 UKRAINE