JOINING FORCES

Edited on 10/07/2025

21/04/2008 26/05/2010

Closed
  • Participative governance
  • Mobility
  • Urban renewal

JOINING FORCES aims at exploring how strategy making and governance arrangements at city-region scale can help to effectively address the main challenges faced by urban Europe: competitiveness, cohesion, and sustainability.

Summary

Introduction

JOINING FORCES is an Urbact Working Group that brings together 8 partners: Brno, Brussels-Capital Region, Burgas, Eindhoven, Florence, Krakow, Lille Metropole, and Seville.

 

All over Europe, metropolitan areas / city-regions are increasingly recognised, even by local authorities, as the "real city" level, the right one for developing more effective governance and strategy developments. Achieving successful cooperation between cities and their surrounding areas is obviously crucial to improve local cohesion, but even more to increase territorial competitiveness and sustainability.

 

The project aims at describing and analysing partners' situations in order to propose conclusions and suitable recommendations to the local / regional / national / European authorities on governance at city-region level. This theme will be considered through different aspects: 

  • Strategy and spatial planning
  • Mobility management and transport
  • Main environmental issues: water supply, waste disposal, etc.
  • Knowledge economy (creativity, research and education)
  • Governance (public / public & public / private arrangements
  • Social inclusion, participation, empowerment
    Attractiveness & Competitiveness (including promotion / marketing)

 

Partners

Lead Partner : Lille - France
  • Seville - Spain
  • Florence - Italy
  • Burgas - Bulgaria
  • Krakow - Poland
  • Brno - Czech Republic
  • Eindhoven - Netherlands
  • Brussels - Belgium

Timeline

Project launch

Project completed

Articles

  • 2026 URBACT City Festival postponed

    Amânarea Festivalului Orașelor URBACT

    Din cauza evoluției situației din Orientul Mijlociu și din regiunea Golfului și ca măsură de precauție, Festivalul Orașelor URBACT, programat inițial să aibă loc la Nicosia, în Cipru, în perioada 31

  • Articles
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    Planurile urbane de succes se construiesc împreună: lecții din 30 de rețele de planificare a acțiunilor URBACT

    Expertul URBACT Ed Thorpe valorifică lecțiile desprinse din două studii pentru a împărtăși observații și reflecții directe din partea orașelor implicate în  cele 30 de rețele de planificare a

  • News
    2026 URBACT City Festival postponed

    Postponement of the URBACT City Festival

    Due to the evolving situation in the Middle East and Gulf region, and as a precautionary measure, the URBACT City Festival, originally scheduled to take place in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 31 March and 1