The European Commission seeks through this initiative to support European cities in becoming more sustainable, inclusive and resilient, while promoting innovation and better policy integration across sectors, including urban mobility.
The EU Agenda for Cities is a key instrument to guide local authorities in addressing complex challenges related to mobility, social cohesion, environmental impact and digital transformation. The call invites input from stakeholders involved in urban development, transport, governance and research.
ECTRI welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this process and underlines the following four key points:
- Ensuring fairer local funding and improving technical support to help cities access and implement innovation and sustainability, particularly those that are small and medium-sized
- Complementing urban mobility approaches with broader urban policies that foster a sustainable transition (social cohesion, fair working conditions, resilience, ect.)
- Addressing the whole chain of innovation in urban mobility – from analysing unsustainable mobility patterns to capitalising on digital transformation to improve urban mobility practices
- Improving the impact of EU and national funding by building on well-established programmes like the CIVITAS Initiative, and prioritizing a focus on existing, well-targeted initiatives over creating new ones
Read the position paper here.