The European Commission announced the launch on Thursday 12 January of four new partnerships on the circular economy, digital transition, jobs and skills, and urban mobility within the EU urban agenda.
This further step towards implementing urban policy was welcomed by Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu. The commissioner again flagged up the importance in European Union policy of cities, working “on issues that affect the daily lives of citizens”.
The partnership on the circular economy will be coordinated by the city of Oslo (Norway), the one on the digital transition will be led by Estonia and the cities of Oulu (Finland) and Sofia (Bulgaria), the one on jobs and skills will be coordinated by Romania and the cities of Jelgava (Latvia) and Rotterdam (Netherlands) and the one on mobility will be headed by the Czech Republic and the city of Karlsruhe (Germany). The coordinators met on the same day in Brussels to determine more closely how the new partnerships would operate and to set their objectives, the Commission said.
The partnerships, an innovation of the EU urban agenda that was adopted last year (see EUROPE 11552), aim to put in place cooperation on 12 issues among different administrative and political levels within the EU. They are scheduled to last between two and three years and will pursue a number of goals: - improving EU legislation taking account of the needs of cities; - improving access to European financial instruments and funding; - enhancing the sharing of best practice among cities.
At present, four partnership have already been put in place: on air quality (led by the Netherlands), on housing (coordinated by Slovakia), on integrating refugees and migrants (headed by Amsterdam) and on urban poverty (led by Belgium and France). These initial partnerships are due to present an action plan in June. A report will be published by the Commission at the end of the year.
In October of last year, the United Nations also adopted a new global urban agenda, Habitat III, which will be put into effect in Europe through the EU urban agenda, as Commissioner Cretu had announced at a UN conference on the subject (see EUROPE 11650). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)