Brussels, 16 December 2016
Today the Commission is launching a second call for projects worth €50 million under the Urban Innovative Actions initiative. Cities can directly apply and get EU funding for innovative urban projects.
In Vienna, a one-stop-shop of public services was set up to accompany migrants in their integration path in the city. In Madrid, four hubs were established in neighbourhoods with high unemployment rates, to create jobs in the energy, mobility, recycling and food sectors while promoting the solidarity economy.
Those are two of the eighteen winning projects of the first Urban Innovative Actions call launched last year. Today the Commission is launching a second call to reward the most innovative projects put forward by the cities themselves.
Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu said: “With this initiative, we are giving cities the means to turn their ideas into concrete practices that we can then share at EU level. Because we know that the solutions to the most pressing challenges – unemployment, social exclusion, climate change, to name a few – will come from cities themselves. The Urban Agenda is precisely aimed at empowering them and making their voices heard.”
The new call, with a budget of €50 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), will reward the most innovative projects in three categories, in line with the priorities of the Urban Agenda for the EU: the integration of migrants, urban mobility and the circular economy. The call runs from today until mid-April 2017.
Background information
The Pact of Amsterdam (30 May 2016) and the Council Conclusions (24 June 2016) launched the Urban Agenda for the EU and laid out its key principles.
At the heart of the Urban Agenda, 12 partnerships allow cities, Member States, EU Institutions, NGOs and business partners to work together on an equal basis to improve quality of life in urban areas. Four pilot partnerships have already started, on the inclusion of migrants, on air quality, on housing and on urban poverty.
In line with the thematic priorities of the Urban Agenda, the Urban Innovative Actions initiative provides EU cities with resources to finance innovative projects, with a total envelope of €372 million from the ERDF over 2014–2020. In the first call, 18 projects were selected among 378 applications.
More information
Twitter: @EU_Regional, @CorinaCretuEU
