The UN’s Summit of the Future takes place on 22-23 September in New York, hosted by the UN General Assembly. It provides a high-level forum to determine the next steps in achieving all 17 sustainable development goals.
The European Union’s Global Gateway strategy aims to strengthen the bloc’s global influence, providing a clear alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. European Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen believes integrating civil society and local authorities will be a game-changer.
Denmark’s DK2020 climate collective initiative brought together all Danish municipalities, now it prospers as the Climate Alliance. What began as a pilot project has become a five-year plan to transform climate plans from targets into tangible action.
Ukrainian municipalities battle at a local level to keep contact with citizens and ensure services continue, despite continuous shelling. Municipal representatives spoke with Euractiv, telling their civic story as Ukraine enters its third year since the Russian invasion.
While national governments tend to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change - as signatories to the Paris Agreement, for example - at this year's COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai, local authorities are also joining them at the table.
As Russia's war in Ukraine forced a cut in public funds, Ukrainian schools are forced to keep operating with fewer resources, while teachers face an increased workload to ensure lessons reach all children.
Since 2019, the Romanian municipality of Reșița has been adopting a new approach to housing its Roma community, moving them away from run-down neighbourhoods and ensuring public housing responds to their needs.
While climate adaptation plans across European cities are improving, a lack of funding and staff shortages still deter municipalities from investing in climate mitigation and adaptation measures.
The European Commission’s plan to reshuffle cohesion funds to finance innovative technologies is heightening concerns over the repeated use of the EU’s place-based policy to address new emerging needs and EU’s recentralising tendencies.
As the EU and European governments step up efforts to increase labour migration to face skills shortages, local governments ask to be more involved in the process to help meet the needs of local labour markets and facilitate socio-economic inclusion.
European city-to-city cooperation, including town twinning, is increasingly viewed as a possible solution to current challenges of sustainability as well as a way to promote best practice exchanges at the local level.
As the EU is struggling to find ways to pay for the transition of its industries towards a carbon-free economy, finances of local governments play an often-neglected role in delivering the needed investments, argues a report.
Local municipalities in the EU and third countries are partnering up to boost local economic and social development, exchange best practices and promote civic participation.
While youth unemployment across the bloc has decreased compared to last year, European towns are struggling to remain attractive to young people.
The European Commission and five local authority associations have renewed a four-year partnership to make European and African communities more sustainable and pave the way for stronger EU-African relations. The Commission recently signed five agreements with associations of local authorities to …
European cities and towns are facilitating access to mental health care professionals and psychological support for displaced Ukrainians.
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.
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 …
