Implementing the Urban agenda for the EU: A smart city approach

About

A seminar jointly organised by JASPERS and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of the EU urban agenda was held in Brussels on 1 December 2016

Target audience

The event brought together about 140 participants from the Committee of the Regions, ESIF managing authorities, regions and cities which have benefitted from JASPERS’ assistance or may draw on it, as well as private companies, investors and representatives of various European bodies. 
 

Objectives

The seminar first focussed on the key challenges to smart city development and the Commission (DG REGIO) policy approach in this context and later examined the financing aspects of such development The workshop highlighted, in particular, the practicalities of working with the EIB and with national development banks, before moving on to concrete cases such as the Six city strategy in Finland, integrated transport development in the Slovak Republic and Extreme Light Infrastructure science park  in Romania.

The latter session showcased fields in the remit of JASPERS Smart Development advisory focusing respectively on framing smart specialisation, urban mobility and research infrastructure in terms of their contribution to sustainable urban development. 

This initiative was organised as part of the "Urban Agenda for the EU" which promotes integrated actions to tackle urban challenges. Discussions focussed on the utilisation of ESIF for smart urban development, including through the Integrated Territorial Investment Mechanism.

This seminar will be followed by a series of local workshops organised by JASPERS during 2017 in some of its countries of operation. A number of  mayors and other members of the Committee of the Regions have expressed interest in participating  in such a local event held in one of their cities in the first half of 2017. The final outcome of these workshops will feed into a joint report on the Implementation of the EU Urban Agenda.