Head officer of International Affairs from Terrassa, Joan Chicón, with some colleagues from other cities / Photo: Valladolid City Council
Valladolid hosted this week, April 10th and 11th, a meeting of the contact officers of the Spanish cities members of EUROCITIES, the most important network of cities in Europe. Terrassa, together with its urban system (with 10 more municipalities from Vallès Occidental that reach more than 410,000 inhabitants) has been part of the network since 2008 and, since January 2017 and together with Barcelona, has the vice presidency of the working group of Branding Management & City Attractiveness, within the Forum of Economic Development (EDF) of the network.
The meeting in the Castilian locality was carried out at the Valladolid Town Hall and at the headquarters of Valladoli+D, the municipal agency responsible for developing the network at the transversal level throughout the City Council, as well as in citizen level
This meeting was agreed during the General Assembly of EUROCITIES in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where the Spanish cities of the network held a small meeting.
Anna Lisa Boni / Photo: European Lab
The event had two parts:
- A presentation with the participation of the hosts, with a direct conference from Brussels with the secretary of EUROCITIES, Anna Lisa Boni, who talked about the future challenges of the network. The Valladolid City Council also exhibited its European projects and innovation, such as REMOURBAN (urban transformation and smart cities), S2CITY (intelligent systems), TT (transport and technology), CENCYL + (sustainable cities network ), INLIFE (about dementia on elderly people) and URBAN GREEN UP (transforming urban spaces with solutions based on nature).
- A thematic session divided into areas such as the European strategy of cities, the Urban Agenda and urban empowerment. Terrassa spoke of its link with the Urban Agenda, while Barcelona presented some of its projects.
Photo: Valladolid City Council
Some of the topics discussed were:
1. Make the defense posture on the cohesion policy of cities to the Ministry (Community Funds).
2. Governance and collaboration: a joint strategy of Spanish cities from the network.
3. Take advantage of the joint synergies of cities for participation in initiatives and projects.
4. Active presence of Spanish cities in the decision-making bodies of EUROCITIES to create advocacy in the cities of the South.
5. Cohesion policy, Urban Agenda, Sustainable Development Goals (ODS), future of the network and future of Europe.
6. New Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and the situation of cities against the cuts in Community Funds in cohesion policy.
7. Analysis of the management model of the departments of International Relations in the different cities of the network.
8. Human and budgetary resources for the management of projects autonomously of the municipal services.
A total of 12 Spanish cities are currently full members or associates of EUROCITIES and 9 of them participated these days in Valladolid: Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, Fuenlabrada, Zaragoza, Bilbao, Gijón, Valladolid and Terrassa.