At the Eurocities Social Affairs Forum in Athens on Monday 17 October, a number of cities launched the Solidarity Cities initiative, a platform for exchanging expertise and knowledge in order to strengthen local-level efforts on the reception and integration of refugees.
“This is a new way of promoting action undertaken by cities to help refugees”, launched on the initiative of Giorgios Kaminis, mayor of the Greek capital Athens, a city particularly exposed to the influx of refugees, a source in Eurocities stated. The initiative was launched within the Eurocities network but is open to all European cities.
The Eurocities website says that the cities taking part in the initiative are looking to work with the European Commission and the member states. The initiative is articulated around four pillars: - the exchange of information and experience on the situation of refugees in cities; - improving the involvement of cities in decisions on allocating funding to manage refugees and also on directly allocating funding; - enhancing financial and technical support between cities; - a pledge to take in identified asylum seekers.
On World Refugee Day in June, Eurocities published a letter to the presidents of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council, on the one hand, calling for tangible responses at European level to the refugee crisis and, on the other, highlighting the crucial role that cities have to play in managing this crisis. The members of Eurocities called, inter alia, for stronger solidarity on the part of European leaders with cities (see EUROPE 11578). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)