Following the failure of the COP25 last week (see other news), the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) will be calling for the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities and Towns to be renewed, at the meeting of the CoR Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER) on Tuesday, 17 December.
“The European Council’s failure to reach unanimity on the climate neutrality objective by 2050 and the lost opportunity of the COP25 talks show us clearly that national governments are failing our citizens, their hopes and their future”, said Juan Espadas Cejas (PES, Spain), rapporteur on the opinion on the Leipzig Charter.
In the opinion of both Cejas and the members of the CoR, the solution to today's major challenges lies with towns and cities, which are tackling the issues of climate and of social inequality (particularly through the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group). He believes it is therefore necessary to reform governance at a number of levels in order to put cities back at the centre of the European decision-making process.
The 2007 Leipzig Charter is a political declaration that sets out to promote increasingly comprehensive urban development while paying particular attention to disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This was the first step towards an urban agenda for the EU (see EUROPE 12056/19).
In the second half of 2020, the German EU Presidency intends to get the work back on track and launch talks on renewal of the Leipzig Charter in order to promote the ecological and socially fair transition of cities.
To read the opinion factsheet, go to: http://bit.ly/2PwLnp4 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)