Cities Forum 2025 - City talks

The purpose of the session was to provide a platform for exemplar cities to showcase successful examples of Sustainable Urban Development(SUD) projects on a diverse range of topics they had initiated and for which they subsequently managed to attract EU funding.  The identified case studies were supported by different EU programmes and mechanisms; from EUI – Innovative Actions projects and City-to-City Exchanges alumni to URBACT Good Practices, Interreg North-West and ESPON. Additionally, two cities that are implementing SUD strategies funded by former Article 7 of ERDF shared their strategies.

Sessions lasted 90 minutes - with six simultaneous 30 minutes presentations and Q&A on the 18^{th of} June, and five on the 19^th. The session was structured in an agora format, which allowed the audience to gather around one practice at each time, followed by rotation to another presentation. This allowed audience exposure to all present case studies and greater engagement.

The topics covered by the case studies were broad and covered a vast range of urban development issues: Affordable housing; Climate change mitigation and adaptation; Energy transition; Smart mobility; Culture & cultural heritage; and Innovation and Deep Tech. 

In addition, there were talks on funding SUD and more generally on the need for, and use of, funds when engaging citizens.

Mobility and Housing presentations attracted keen interest from the audience, which reflected the overall feedback from the audience from the parallel and plenary sessions. 

Vilnius and Cascais presented environmental projects, with a focus on Climate change mitigation and adaptation.  The common findings are that:

• Significant citizen engagement can be achieved with modest (<€5,000) outlays; and
• Once started, projects can lead to significant follow-on activity 
• Projects were very effective in bringing local communities together and stimulating citizen participation.

• With regards to Housing, it was evident that this is a key issue across Europe.  Complementing the EuroBarometer presentation during the plenary session, presentations by ESPON and Lille each attracted significant interest, discussions and very positive feedback.  affordable housing and the urgency of action was stressed multiple times.
• Significant citizen engagement can be achieved with modest funds.
• When discussing the issues related to Mobility, citizen awareness-raising has to focus on reducing the pushback against new initiatives, as stated by the City of Szeged. Furthermore, integrated policies are required if multiple transport modes are to be fully integrated, emphasized by the City of Groningen.
• City of Leipzig stated that timing is a factor for Urban projects – economic conditions can change quickly making projects non-viable.
• Successful Energy transition requires a holistic vision – bringing together housing, municipal buildings, green spaces within an overall strategy when seeking funding.
• Finally, as demonstrated by the experience of City-to-City Exchanges suggests that national policies have a significant impact on digitalisation policies at a city level.

Feedback after the event suggests:

• City of Lille, a case study with relation to affordable housing, received significant follow-up from other cities looking for ways to create more affordable housing.
• City of Leipzig, presenting and urban regeneration and active travel infrastructure, has been approached to present at another European conference later this year.
• City of Celje received compliments from an URBACT representative on the quality of her talk and the depth of insight she provided.
• City of Tartu was invited to share its experiences of European Capital of Culture in a network looking into the impact of ECoC seasons.

Priority Themes

• The Talks addressed specific priorities and provided cities with good practice.  Participation on the affordable Housing talks suggests that it is a key issue for cities across the EU. 

Better Regulation

• Showed the importance of linking national and local policy in Mobility (Cities of Groningen and Szeged)

Better Funding

• How to attract novel funding sources for Energy Transition (City of Bucharest, District 6) and Sustainable Land Use and Nature Based Solutions (Cities of Vilnius and Cascais)

Better Knowledge

• Generally, cities selected for Talks were chosen for their unique perspectives and successful project implementations.