The ‘Cities for Tomorrow, Investing In Europe’ conference, organised in Brussels in February, aimed at discussing the why, how and what of the European Urban Agenda. Discussions on the conference, the agenda and on links between Europe and Cities spreaded accross to Twitter. Here is URBACT’s Best-Of!
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Expectation was tangible around the European Urban Agenda before the event!
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RT @aloysrigaut #EUcities CoRs’ #BasVerkerk rapporteur: do we need an #EU urban agenda? Yes absolutely! Why not yet there? -
Big week ahead for #EUCiTIES. Will all be revealed at #CitiesofTomorrow? http://tinyurl.com/opbjo7u @URBACT -
Speakers start with acknowledging the importance of cities within the union… but those links could be built upon more.
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Sessions give opportunity to think about role of cities on global scene and challenges as well as on the urban agenda. What should it entail? A focus on people, poverty, social inclusion and sustainability is demanded by and beyond the URBACT community.
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RT @SallyKneeshaw: “We forget that cities are where people live, love and die, not just an administrative level” @BenjaminRBarber #EUCiTIES -
But the focus remained somewhat vague on the first day.
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Benjamin Barber‘s appearance on day 1 was most appreciated…
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Well… @BenjaminRBarber just woke us up. “Democratic deficit in Europe can be fixed at city level” #EUCiTIES -
As was MEP Jan Olbrycht‘s closing speach.
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Panels on day 1 were widely criticised for their uniformity – only 1 woman in 22 (overwhelmingly white) speakers!
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So what about URBACT’s role and possible contributions in the upcoming agenda? There is a widespread emphasis on the importance of inter-cities collaboration and transfer of best practice.
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#EUCiTIES: a EU urban agenda needs EU governance, funding and coop. Sustainable education of citizen. Transfer best practices. @EU_Regional -
URBACT can also provide thematic input.
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On the 19th, a presentation of URBACT III program was well attended.
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Full room for @URBACT III programme presentation. With us@EU_Regional @EUROCITIEStweet @InteractEU @ESPON_Programme pic.twitter.com/tqsbOcSLbM -
At the end of the two days of conference, not very surprisingly, the principle of a European Urban Agenda made a consensus .A platform was created to collect inputs on the Agenda which should be finalised before 2015.
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URBACT Thematic Pole Manager will contribute another blog post on the Conference next week with their inputs on the Forum, the Agenda and the role URBACT III will play in it. In the meantime… they already have tips for next year’s forum!
