Cities & regions Archives

Cooperation and knowledge exchanges between European towns can play a key role in integrating newcomers, experts say, adding that their inclusion strategies can also serve as a model for larger European cities.

While the EU is planning to decarbonise buildings across the bloc to advance the green transition, local authorities are calling for more support to face a shortage of skilled workers to design and implement decarbonisation projects.

While the follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) remains uncertain, local and regional authorities are calling on the EU to grant them a bigger role in the implementation of the citizens’ recommendations.

Leaders of European cities and towns are moving to support Ukrainian local and regional  authorities through peer to peer schemes as sub-national leaders look to rebuild the war-torn country.

As the war in Ukraine rages on, Europe braces for an unprecedented wave of refugees. European regions are expected to play a crucial role by leveraging their interconnectedness and the EU’s regional cohesion funds.

It is clear that the ongoing coronavirus crisis has offset sustainability efforts: thousands of personal protective equipment items are thrown away every day and the pandemic has increased poverty and inequality. Flemish communities have taken these setbacks head-on, bringing together individuals and local authorities to tackle disparities caused by the pandemic.

While the sustainable development agenda took a back seat during the pandemic, one region in Spain pressed ahead with creating an 'ecosystem for sustainable development goals' to reach global goals locally. To take a closer look, EURACTIV spoke with Marta Marín, delegate of the Basque Country's mission to the EU.

With less than a decade to achieve the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030, new studies show that local and regional authorities are still often sidelined in the monitoring and national coordination of implementing the global benchmarks.

The European Commission is looking into a number of European outposts with a central role in programming EU external aid which remain "passive" despite receiving instructions to actively engage with a wide variety of local actors, Commissioner for International Partnerships …

Decentralised cooperation for sustainable water management and sanitation between European regional, local authorities with their counterparts across the globe is key to help localise sustainable development goals, stakeholders say.

Though their efforts are often overlooked, from cultural exchange to capacity building, local players are a key part of the European integration of Western Balkan and Eastern European countries and need more support.

EU delegations are to submit by the end of February their proposals for spending development aid based on consultations in their respective countries, reflecting the bigger role of the diplomatic outposts in hitting assistance targets. The EU has some 140 delegations …

As the EU and African Union seek to make up for lost time in 2020 by accelerating talks on a new ‘strategic partnership’ covering political and economic cooperation one of the risks is that the talks take place in a vacuum at high political level with little regard for local communities.

Europe should move away from a donor-recipient relationship with Africa and cooperate as equals instead, EU lawmakers have said in a new report adopted on Thursday (28 January).