Photo: IUC-programme

European cities to support EU diplomacy

23 November 2017

by Barbara Szewcow

For the first time, the European Union (EU) will work with cities and regions as key partners in international diplomacy, as part of the EU’s International Urban Cooperation (IUC) programme. Launched in November in Brussels, 31 city pairings–with more to join–from China, Japan, India and the Americas will cooperate on sustainable development and climate change.

“There is a lot of interest inside and outside the EU on how new technologies can be harnessed to promote new models of sustainable development, the so-called ‘smart city’,” Ronald Hall, Principal Adviser on International Relations, at the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy, told Cities Today. “Other popular themes include urban mobility, the socially inclusive city, energy efficiency and, mostly in rapidly growing cities outside the EU, waste treatment.”

The IUC builds on existing projects including World Cities which focuses on city-to-city cooperation, the Urban European and Latin American and Caribbean cities (URBELAC) network and the EU-China urban relationship launched in May 2017. The city-to-city cooperation component of the IUC seeks to promote European urban development priorities which, since 2016, are summarised in the EU’s 12-point Urban Agenda and the New Urban Agenda which the EU worked on closely with the UN and was later adopted at Habitat III.

Ronald Hall, Principal Adviser on International Relations, DG REGIO

“The IUC is at the launch stage but it builds on certain actions that we have already implemented,” added Hall. “World Cities provides many insights as to how cities can help each other. I could cite many examples, such as the relationship between the Andalusia Smart City Cluster which signed an MoU with Shantou last year to establish a China-EU Smart-City Pilot District in Zhugang New City.”

The programme is encouraging all cities under the city-to-city component to ensure that the private sector and academia are represented when it comes to study and exchange visits as the private sector is considered to be key by Hall to deliver growth and employment in cities.

“[The private sector] can also help to promote new business opportunities on each side and in that way make a contribution to building more prosperity,” he explained. “You could say that we are emphasising the positive side of globalisation.”

A new call for expressions of interest will take place in 2018 for EU cities to become involved under the city-to-city cooperation. The programme is also developing an interactive, on-line networking and support platform in several languages which will allow cities to see concrete examples of cooperation that are taking place and to make contact with participating cities for further information.

Hall added: “The urban components of IUC will help us to work together on a global scale to address some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: how to make our cities liveable, sustainable, prosperous and inclusive while maintaining and reinforcing the fight against climate change.”

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