CITIES FORUM

The third CITIES Forum, organised by the European Commission and the city of Rotterdam, was held in Rotterdam on the 27th and 28th of November 2017.

This two-day major event of the European Commission brought together key stakeholders from European, national and local levels to debate the progress of the Urban agenda for the EU, the urban dimension of the Cohesion Policy as well as the EU response to the urban dimension of the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda.

On the first day, the partnerships of the Urban Agenda for the EU organised a series of workshops across the City of Rotterdam. In addition a workshop was also held to discuss the issues surrounding the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, of the urban dimension of the 2030 Agenda at the local level, and how cities can contribute to achieve these goals.

A former ocean liner hosted the Cities Forum from the afternoon of the first day with welcoming words and introductions of high level speakers.

On the second day, the progress and future direction of the Urban Agenda were evoked, as well as the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy and the challenges related to global urban policies, strategies and goals. A new platform was launched to assist cities in improving their investment capacities. Mayors, Ministers, Commissioners and other high level speakers reflected on their current challenges and shared their visions on the way forward towards better urban policy making and urban investments. The audience was also actively engaged thanks to a voting application through which participants were able to share opinions and contribute to the debate.

Some other workshops took place and focused on the work of Covenant of Mayors, innovative & inspiring city examples and projects, as well as the human rights perspective in the Urban Agenda for the EU. At their stands, urban organisations and networks engaged with the participants and provided information on urban programmes and initiatives.

We want to thank you for participating to the event. We hope you got some valuable insights during the forum, and enjoyed the workshops, speeches and panel debates.

You  can  find  the  presentations  of  the  speakers, videos, photos, background documents,etc under  the  following  link : https://citiesforum2017.topi.com/ 

For more information on the Report to the Council on the Urban Agenda for the EU, please follow this link: /regional_policy/en/information/publications/reports/2017/report-from-the-commission-to-the-council-on-the-urban-agenda-for-the-eu

Thanks to those that used social media, in particular Twitter, to share stories and pictures from the Cities Forum. We encourage you to use #CitiesForum2017 to continue feeding back your impressions and ideas.

Twitter: @EU_Regional #citiesforum2017

Videos

Presentations