News & Events

The European Commission technical dialogue organised by the European Urban Initiative will take place in Amsterdam on 18 November 2026, as part of the second day of the Cities at the Core conference.

As summer draws to a close, Europe has once again experienced major water-related challenges, with water scarcity, heavy rainfall and localised flooding affecting many regions. How can urban areas cope with these challenges and what does a Water Sensitive City (WSC) actually look like in practice? Two new reports of the WSC Partnerships dive into these questions, exploring several case studies and offering insightful lessons.

Cities already govern food through responsibilities they exercise every day, even where food is not a formal municipal competence. Public meals, procurement, markets, spatial planning, social services, local economic development, environmental policy, waste management and emergency support all shape how food is produced, distributed and accessed.
The central question is whether national and regional systems provide cities with the mandate, capacity, financing and access to programmes they need to turn this activity into durable public policy.

The ESPON-GILL Methodology for Quantifying the Demand for Green Infrastructure at Local Level is now publicly available. Developed under the Action 1 of the Urban Agenda for the EU Greening Cities Partnership, it provides municipalities with a flexible, evidence-based framework, interactive user manual and case-study dashboard to help identify where green infrastructure is most needed and inform local planning and investment.

What happens when two major EU decarbonisation obligations land on cities at the same time, but without a clear mechanism to connect them? The URBANEW - EMC3 project and the Building Decarbonisation Partnership are using that institutional gap as an opportunity to redesign how local energy planning is done: bringing together building renovation at neighbourhood level, heating and cooling planning, and every level of government needed to turn EU ambition into operational reality.

Increasing evidence suggests that traditional ways of managing water in our cities are not enough to meet the growing environmental pressures and changing social expectations. Water-sensitive planning is meant to design and manage cities so that the urban water cycle (rainfall, runoff, drainage, supply, and wastewater), functions in balance with natural hydrological processes rather than in conflict with them. But what does this mean in practice? Which water-sensitive solutions are available, and how can cities identify those best suited to their particular risks and territorial conditions?

Assessment of the first draft of the national building renovation plans

The Urban Agenda for the EU Partnership on Greening Cities met in Imola and Bologna on 29–30 June 2026 to take stock of its outputs, strengthen dissemination pathways, prepare its contribution to upcoming Nature Restoration Regulation capacity-building activities, and agree priorities for the Partnership’s final implementation phase.

The Compact Cities Partnership of the Urban Agenda for the EU has published its Orientation Paper, marking the completion of the first phase of the Partnership's work and setting the strategic direction for the actions to come.

Hosted by the Czech Ministry of Regional Development, the Water Sensitive City Partnership held its third in-person meeting in Prague on 24–25 June 2026. The two-day meeting marked an important transition towards finalising the Partnership’s draft Action Plan and implementation. Partners focused on strengthening connections between the different Actions, integrating the feedback received through the public consultation and agreeing on practical next steps.

One of the Food Partnership's key actions focuses on unlocking the potential of public land to strengthen local food policies. By improving access to land for local food producers, supporting smarter public land management, and integrating land use into urban food strategies, the initiative aims to build fairer and more sustainable food systems. It also explores how the EU can help cities replicate successful land management approaches across different contexts.

The first key findings from this Action are now available and will be disseminated through two webinars, the first of which is planned for 13 July 2026.

As European cities struggle with demographic decline and labour shortages, they also have a unique opportunity to harness diversity, talent and inclusion as drivers of sustainable urban development.