Sustainable smart regions and cities can drive Europe forward, boost economic growth, create jobs and improve citizen\u2019s quality of life, stressed President of the European Committee of the Regions Markku Markkula and President of the Basque Country I\u00f1igo Urkullu during their meeting in Bilbao April 27. Both leaders discussed cooperation between European regions and cities, the EU Urban Agenda, sustainable development and the next Climate Summit \u2013 COP22.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Basque Country clearly represents an example of sustainable transformation, with internationally recognised projects in environmental management and urban renewal. We are eager to cooperate on the basis of the Basque Declaration\u201d, stressed Markku Markkula. The Basque Declaration provides urban societies with pathways to become productive, sustainable and resilient. In his speech during the opening session, President Markkula also welcomed all delegates to the Amsterdam Forum 30 May for the official launch of the EU Urban Agenda initiative.<\/p>\n
Presidents Markkula and Urkullu discussed issues linked to environmental, economic and social policies at the local and regional level. President Urkullu outlined the Basque's newly adopted Environmental Programme 2020, which consolidates the transformation of an industry-based model to an innovation-driven, service-oriented economy. President Markkula presented the EU Urban Agenda, a new initiative to energize cities through new economic and social development models based on new technologies and best available knowledge.<\/p>\n
President Markkula invited the Basque Country to join a group of pioneering regions and cities in sustainability and innovation as the transformation of Bilbao is an internationally recognised best practice in sustainable urban development. Both agree on the need to defend the role of cities and regions in reaching the new targets set by the Paris climate agreement and to facilitate access to finance as 70 % of environmental legislation is implemented by local and regional authorities.<\/p>\n
President Markkula\u2019s visit has also been the occasion to highlight the role of the European Committee of the Regions in sustainable energy issues, referring to CoR\u2019s contributions on the new EU circular economy package, the revised waste directives, the development of sustainable heating and cooling systems in Europe and the promotion of green mobility solutions in urban areas.<\/p>\n
A delegation of the ENVE Commission of the European Committee of the Regions is also taking part in the 8th European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns. The Members of the ENVE Commission visited Urbaibai, a Unesco biosphere reserve internationally recognised as an outstanding example of environmental management.<\/p>\n
Source: CoR Press Release<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sustainable smart regions and cities can drive Europe forward, boost economic growth, create jobs and improve citizen\u2019s quality of life, stressed President of the European Committee of the Regions Markku Markkula and President of the Basque Country I\u00f1igo Urkullu during their meeting in Bilbao April 27. Both leaders discussed cooperation between European regions and cities, the EU Urban Agenda, sustainable development and the next Climate Summit \u2013 COP22. \u201cThe Basque Country clearly represents an example of sustainable transformation, with internationally recognised projects in environmental management and urban renewal. We are eager to cooperate on the basis of the Basque Declaration\u201d, stressed Markku Markkula. The Basque Declaration provides urban societies with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1077,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions\/1077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}