The meeting was devoted to a debate between members and partners about the role of cities in the implementation of the EU 2020 Strategy. It focused also on the main points of the report by Mr. Vlasak “European Urban Agenda and its Future in Cohesion Policy”.
Members and partners present discussed about the consequences of demographic change in cities. The debate followed the presentation on the same subject by Muriel Boulmier from Cecodhas. MEPs talked also about upcoming urban related issued in EP committees work.
The last meeting of this year was devoted to the debate about JESSICA. Eugenio Leanza, Head of JESSICA and Investment Funds at EIB, presented the initiative as “An EU policy vehicle for the sustainable transformation of European city areas”.
After the recent publication by the European Commission of the 5th Cohesion Report, MEPs decided to gather to discuss the urban dimension of the report. The discussion followed the introduction by Alexander Ferstl from the DG Regio at the European Commission who outlined also the ex-post evaluation of the URBAN II Community initiative.
The main point of the meeting was the discussion about the preparation of cities for natural catastrophes that followed the presentation by Rui Tavares. Participants talked also over upcoming conference and events organised by the Intergroup.
