EU Urban Agenda – first Partnerships launched
EU Urban Agenda, which will be endorsed in May 30th by the approval of the “Pact of Amsterdam” by ministers responsible for urban matters, will be implemented in line with 12 themes. Strong partnership between urban areas, Member States, the European Commission and relevant stakeholders will work on each theme.
Dutch Presidency of the Council is coordinating the process of the establishment of first four partnerships. The following pilot partnerships have just been created:
- Air Quality, coordinated by the Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment)
- Housing, coordinated by Slovakia (Ministry of Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development)
- Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees, coordinated by the city of Amsterdam (NL)
- Urban Poverty, coordinated by Belgium (Federal Urban Policy) and France (Commissariat General a L’ Egalité des Territoires)
Each Partnership will work for two or three years and will look at three main issues: better regulation (how can existing rules and regulations be adjusted so that they become more urban proof), better use of financial instruments (how can existing EU financial instruments better be used?) and better knowledge exchange (this will look at current knowledge exchange networks and determine if improvements can be made).
For more information about the pilot Partnerships and the EU Urban Agenda visit special website created by the Dutch Presidency.
EU Prize for contemporary architecture – meeting in Strasbourg on February 4th
Last meeting of the URBAN Intergroup, which took place on Thursday February 4th at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, was dedicated to the biennial European Union Prize for contemporary architecture/Mies van der Rohe Awards.
This Prize was created in 1988 jointly by the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona and is currently supported by Creative Europe Programme. It is the most prestigious architecture prize for finished constructions in Europe.
The presentation of EU Prize for contemporary architecture and its potential contribution to EU policies was made by Monica Urian, European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Creative Europe Programme. At the beginning of the meeting a trailer showed the reflection of architects across Europe about a European Identity in architecture. Afterwards, a big development of the Prize has been presented since its creation. The role of the unique archive with all nominated projects was underlined as well as the whole organizational network. During the discussion MEPs particular appreciated collected data base on contemporary architectural trends and analyses made which shows among others typologies of recently constructed buildings in Europe. In conclusion, participants of the meeting discussed how to further developed this unique EU Prize and link it to the policy making.
In 2015 Prize edition 420 nominated projects were selected from which the Jury members shortlisted 40 of them. Five finalist works competed for the Prize and one Emerginng Architect was chosen. The winner of 2015 edition is Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin, in Poland.
