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Public Consultation of Draft Action Plan

Public Consultation Timeline

Between June 6 and July 31 2024 the Thematic Partnership on Greening Cities initiated a Public Consultation to collect feedback on their Draft Action Plan.

Finalised in April 2024, the Draft Action Plan proposes five key Actions aimed at increasing green infrastructure in EU cities and regions. The partnership addresses critical challenges such as the need for evidence-based planning tools, effective implementation strategies, robust legislative support, adequate funding, and innovative financial instruments. Developed by the Members of the Greening Cities Partnership, the Action Plan supports the implementation of the EU policy agenda on urban greening at the local level to increase urban biodiversity, adapt to climate change, and improve citizens' wellbeing. 

The public consultation invited interested stakeholders, including institutions and authorities, academic and research centers, companies, NGOs, experts, and citizens, to contribute with their knowledge and ideas to further develop and enhance the proposed actions. Since the closing of the consultation period the partnership has worked on integrating the feedback in the Final Action Plan which will be finalised in winter 2024.

Below you can see the Draft Action Plan and the material accompanying it:

 

About the partnership

The Greening Cities Thematic Partnership is focusing on green infrastructure in the urban areas. The Partnership would be of high relevance to the problems and needs of cities of all sizes with regards to biodiversity preservation and adaptation to climate change. The Partnership would be aligned with the objectives of cities to provide higher well-being to citizens through cleaner air, better inclusiveness and a more aesthetic environment. 

In this regard, the objective of the Partnership is to contribute to the development of an implementation framework for green infrastructure at local, regional/national and EU levels, including links/reflections to the provisions of Article no. 8 from the proposal for a Nature Restoration Law, through:  

  1.  ensuring knowledge (methodologies, guidelines, indicators) for the deployment of concrete green infrastructure (GI) solutions at city level and national level;  
  2. strengthening the integration of green infrastructure (GI) in the urban dimension of upcoming EU policies and in other sectoral policies;  

The Greening Cities Partnership is composed of 29 members, including 10 cities, 2 regions, and 3 national authorities. It was approved in October 2022, started its work in December of the same year, and is expected to implement its work by the end of 2025. To develop its Action Plan, the Partnership used an Ex-Ante Assessment study as a foundation, structured its work under four Working Groups (WGs) focused on Funding, Indicators System, Methodology for quantifying demand for Green Infrastructure and Urban Nature Restoration Plans. All UAEU Partnerships aim to contribute to Better Knowledge, Better Funding, and Better Regulation by applying multilevel and multi-stakeholder cooperation processes at the EU level. 

Thematic focus

The proposed subthemes relevant to Greening cities are presented in Table 1, which also gives an overview of the state of play and thematic bottlenecks pertinent to each subtheme and links to EU policy frameworks.

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T able 1 : S u b - th emes r el a t ed t o gre e n an d bl u e i nf r a struc t u r e; s t ate of pl a y a n d b o tt lenec k s; c ont r ib u t io n t o E U po li c y fr a m e w o r ks Sub - theme Current state of play Thematic bottlenecks vis - à - v i s t h e t h re e p i l l a r s o f the UAEU Contribution to EU policy T y p e s o f g re e n a n d b l u e infrastructure - T he s t a t e o f p l a y i s d i f f e r e n t f o r t he d i f f e r en t t y p e s o f GI. - Detailed map of urban green i n fr a s tr u c t u r e i s a k e y f o r i n f o r m ed de c i s i o n - m a k i ng . F e w c i t i e s m a k e u s e o f E u r o p ean w i de o r e v e n na t i ona l da t a s e t s f o r s u p po rt i ng l o c a l d e c i s i o n m a k i ng . (E n Ro u t e p r o j e c t) - - Scattered data exist on the uptake of individual s o l u t i o n s ( s ee r epo r t o n u r ba n ag r i c u l t u r e ) - Better knowledge - O ppo rt u n i t i e s e m b e dd e d i n t h e v a r i o u s EU financing instruments hav e n o t y e t bee n f u l l y e x p l o i t e d ( b e t t e r f un d i ng ) - Insufficient integration of GI in spatial planning (better regulation) - Detailed and locally collected spatial data are need e d t o i n t eg r a t e u r b an g r e en i n fr a s t r u c t u r e i n po l i c y ( b e t t e r k no w l edge and b e t t e r re gu l a t i o n ) EU Green Infrastructure Strategy EU Climate Change Strategy EU Biodiversity Strategy (incl. Urban Greening Plans) EU Forest Strategy EU water regulation Disaster and risk p r e v en t i o n Health and consumer po l i c i e s W a t e r F r a m e w o r k Directive (WF D) M a r i ne S t r a t e g y Framework Directive (MSFD) EU policy framework in ene r g y e f f i c i e n c y , bu i l t en v i r o n m en t , s u s t a i na b l e m ob i li t y , e t c . EU Mission: Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Exploring the benefits of G I i n a n ur b a n c o nt e x t: - Environment (habitats, c o n n e c t i v i t y , c l e a n a ir, e t c .) - Society (health, well - being, recreation, etc.) - Economy (tourism, job creation, livelihood, etc.) - M u l t i p l e p r o j e c t s and r epo r t s e x p l o r e i m p a c t s a n d b e ne f i t s o f d i f f e r e n t t y pe s o f G I on en v i r o n m e n t , s o c i e t y and e c o n o m y . - Demons trating the benefits of urban g r een i n fr a s tr u c t u r e r e q u i r e s l i n k i n g e c o s y s t e m d a t a w i t h s o c i o - e c o no m i c s t a t i s t i c s . (E n Ro u t e p r o j e c t) - M ee t i ng t a r g e t 2 o f EU B i o d i v e r s i t y Strategy and restoring Natura 2000 to favourable status could further gene r a t e r e s p e c ti v e l y u p t o 5 0 0 00 a nd 140 0 00 j ob s ; a n d u p t o EUR 4 . 2 a n d 11 . 1 b il l i o n o f d i r e c t o u t p u t s a n nua l l y ; a s w e ll a s a w i de r r ang e o f be ne f i t s from ecosystem services (COM:2019:236: FIN). - Benefits are difficult to quantify while costs are v i s i b l e ( b e t t e r k no w l ed g e ) - Insufficient knowledge on integrating green and b l ue i n fr a s tr u c t u r e d i m e n s i on s i n s t r a t e g i e s a n d p l a n s f o r S u s t a i n ab l e Ur ba n D e v e l op m en t and Integrated Territorial Investment Strategies (better funding) - Insufficient information on local level regarding b i o d i v e r s i t y w i t h i n c i t i e s ( b e t t e r k no w l ed g e ) Integration of green and blue infrastructure into other sectoral policies: - Built environment - Transport - Urban Agriculture - Energy - Health - Air - In many Member States, objectives or requirements specifically related to GI a r e i n c l u de d i n b r oa d e r b i od i v e r s i t y and n a t u r e c o n s e r v a t i on po l i c i e s a nd l eg i s l a t i o n (C O M : 2 019 : 2 36 : FI N) - Interviewed stakeholders have pointed a t s i gn i f i c an t m a r g i n s f o r i m p r o v e m en t - Insufficient Integration of different types of GI s o l u t i o n s i n t o l o c a l p l a n s , s e c t o r a l p l a n s regulations, etc. (better regulation - Insufficient scaling up of good practices of i n t e g r a t i o n o f G I i n t o s e c t o r a l p o li c i e s b e t t e r regulation - G I i s n o t w i de l y u s ed b y d e c i s i o n - m a k e r s a n d s t a k eh o l de r s a s a c o s t - e f f i c i e n t solution to health i s s ue s (C O M : 2019 : 2 36 : F IN) ( be t t e r k no w l ed g e ) - G ood p r a c t i c e s o n GI i n t r an s p o rt a r e s po r ad i c (COM: 2019:236:FIN) be t t e r k no w l edg e Implementation of green a n d b l u e i nfr a s tru c tur e : - Q u a l i t y o f d es i g n a n d a e s th e t i cs o f green public s p a c e s - Q u a l i t y o f implementation - Increasing number of cities a c k no w l edge t ha t t h e qua l i t y o f u r ba n s p a c e s a n d p l a c e s , i n c l ud i ng t he g r e en one s c o n tr i b u t e s f u nd a m en t a l l y t o o u r w e l l - be i ng and m a k e s c i t i e s m o r e beau t i f u l , i n c l u s i v e and s u s t a in ab l e . - - T he r e i s no s ys t e m a t i s ed i n f o r m a t i on o n t h e qua l i t y o f d i f f e r e n t t y p e s o f GI a c r o ss EU c i t i e s be t t e r k no w l ed g e - G I s o l u t i o n s a r e n o t u s ed t o t h e i r f u ll e x t e n t a n d their potential should be further strengthened at EU level (COM: 2019:236:FIN) better knowledge New Leipzig Charter EU GI Strategy EU Climate Change Strategy EU Biodiversity Strategy EU Forest Strategy EU Water regulation Disaster and risk p r e v en t i o n New European Bauhaus Renovation Wave Strategy

Members

By clicking on the symbol  , in the top left corner, you will be able to see the different layers of this map.

 

National authorities

  • Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, Coordinator (RO)
  • Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets (HR)
  • Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy of the Republic of Poland (PL)

Regions

  • Brussels Environment (BE)
  • Marshal’s Office of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship (PL)

Cities (Urban Authorities)

  • Nuovo Circondario Imolese, Coordinator (IT)
  • Roma Capitale (IT)
  • City of 's-Hertogenbosch, Department of Urban Development (NL)
  • City of Utrecht (NL)
  • City of Tampere (FI)
  • City of Ostrava (CZ)
  • City of Roeselare (BE)
  • Ādaži municipality (LV)
  • City Council of Pontevedra (Ayuntamiento de Pontevedra) (ES)
  • Lisbon Metropolitan Area (PT)

European/ national city umbrella organisation

  • Eurocities (BE)
  • European Investment Bank
  • Association of Urban Municipalities of Slovenia (SI)
  • European Urban Knowledge Network (EUKN EGTC) (NL)

Other stakeholders

  • INCASÒL_ Catalan Land Institute (ES)
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) / Environmental Engineering Laboratory (Enve-Lab) (rl)
  • JPI Urban Europe / DUT Partnership

European institution

  • European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO)
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV)
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, social affairs and inclusion (DG EMPL)
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW)
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA)
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MARE)
  • European Commission DG Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (EAC)
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI)
  • European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Documents

EUI - Call for City-to-City Exchanges

The call for City-to-City exchanges is open on a continous basis. 
Check the details and apply to benefit of other city experiences to tackle your sustainable urban development challenges.

EUI - Call for Peer Reviews

The Call for Peer Reviews is open until 12 November 2024 at 12:00 CET.
A Peer Review is a capacity building activity offered by EUI to support European cities to improve the design and implementation of their Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) strategies, through a process of benchmarking and peer learning.

Knowledge

View knowledge outputs on Portico

Portico is the European urban knowledge platform developed by the European Urban Initiative (EUI) in support of better urban policy and strategy design, implementation, and mainstreaming.

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