Looking Back, Moving Forward: 2025 Goals for the UAEU Thematic Partnerships
Key Developments and achievements in 2024
2024 was a pivotal year for the UAEU Thematic Partnerships. Reflecting on the progress made, the ongoing Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism and Greening Cities achieved major milestones by finalizing their Action Plans.
A highlight and turning point for the Greening Cities Partnership was March 2024, marked by the initial failure of Member States to secure a qualified majority on the Nature Restoration Law that the partnership was built around. Despite this setback, the partnership demonstrated resilience, revising its actions while maintaining its focus on greening cities. Six months later, the law was passed, aligning the two initiatives once again.
In 2024, the Sustainable Tourism Partnership solidified as a cohesive group, fostering a strong sense of belonging and a clear understanding of its role in the European scenario. Both Partnerships have now officially entered the implementation phase.
From earlier generations of Partnerships, the Public Procurement Partnership released the final report of its 2022–2024 Action Plan, highlighting the successful completion of all planned initiatives and initiating preparations for a new 2025–2027 Action Plan.
The Partnership on Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees expanded with 15 new members, resulting in a more geographically balanced consortium with a wide variety of stakeholders. Furthermore, the new secretariat, ICF, will support the Partnership in implementing the recently approved 2025-2027 Action Plan, finalized just before the year’s end.
The Culture and Cultural Heritage Partnership has, among other achievements, established valuable 'networks of networks' of European institutions. Some of these Action Groups, such as the Dissonant Heritage Action Group, continues to meet approximately every 8 weeks and works on independent projects.
The Food and Cities of Equality Partnerships, which began their journeys at the start of 2024, published their Orientation Papers in August. The Food Partnership aims to transform food systems by positioning cities as key drivers of change, while the Cities of Equality Partnership focuses on sharing diverse approaches to equality, safeguarding diversity and fostering participatory efforts to build inclusive and welcoming urban services and spaces.
Finally, as the year concluded, two new Thematic Partnerships - Building Decarbonisation and Water Sensitive City - were formally validated during the EU Directors-General Responsible for Urban Matters meeting on November 27.
New year, new goals: tackling common challenges together
The year 2025 will start with kick-off meetings for the two new Thematic Partnerships, aiming for a solid beginning that fosters strong collaboration and meaningful exchanges among partners.
The Food and Cities of Equality Partnerships will focus on finalizing their draft Action Plans, which will then enter a consultation phase.
The Greening Cities and Sustainable Tourism Partnerships will prioritize the implementation of their recently approved Action Plans. The new year will be crucial for the Greening Cities Partnership’s progress, with both great challenges and opportunities ahead related to the implementation of the Action Plan and the execution of priority activities identified as strategic. For 2025, the Sustainable Tourism Partnership will aim to strengthen collaboration, expand its network, and enhance connections, all while working towards shared goals.
The Public Procurement and Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees Partnerships will focus on a new set of actions, building on and maximizing the impact of results from their previous Action Plans.
In 2025, the Culture and Cultural Heritage Partnership will publish the toolkit on Dissonant Heritage as a key milestone and culmination of the Action, with the hope that it will provide valuable guidance and inspiration to local stakeholders working on this topic.
Strengthening Synergies and Addressing Shared Challenges
One thing is certain: for all Partnerships, 2025 will be a year marked by shared challenges and goals. These include strengthening synergies, sharing knowledge and strategies on common transversal issues, and leveraging previous partnership experiences to maximize impact.
In terms of synergies, some Partnerships have already begun identifying potential areas for collaboration. For instance, the Public Procurement and Food Partnerships hold significant potential for joint efforts on public procurement issues. The upcoming EU consultation on the Public Procurement Directive, could serve as an initial test bed for gathering contributions and fostering cooperation.
Another example comes from the Cities of Equality and Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees Partnerships, which identified three key areas for potential collaboration during a partnership meeting in Brussels in December 2024: understanding residential choices and housing access, promoting intersectional social inclusion practices, and improving EU funding instruments for equality and inclusion.
Among the key cross-cutting issues, a common challenge is the development of innovative funding schemes and the enhancement of EU funding instruments across diverse policy areas. The meeting organized to discuss key findings of the 'Inception Report on Innovative Financing Schemes in European Cities', aimed to foster debate and provide valuable recommendations to UAEU Partnerships on implementing innovative financial schemes, marked a significant first step in addressing this shared challenge, with similar initiatives planned for 2025.
Key Events in 2025
The CALM (Coordinators and Action Leaders) meeting, scheduled to take place in Brussels on April 1st, will offer an excellent opportunity to leverage previous partnership experiences. This event will provide an opportunity for all UAEU Partnerships, from different generations, to share successful experiences and lessons learned, with the aim of maximizing the impact of their work and enhancing the benefits of the UAEU multi-level governance approach.
Another milestone event will be the Cities Forum in Kraków (June 17-19), providing an exciting platform for all UAEU Partnerships to exchange ideas, build partnerships, and shape the future of EU cities in sustainable urban development.
With a focus on shared goals and collaboration, 2025 promises to be a year of progress and meaningful impact for the UAEU Thematic Partnerships.
