In addition to the 27 European Union Member States, the Partner States (Switzerland and Norway) and the five countries benefitting from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), henceforth cities from Ukraine and Moldova will also be able to join the URBACT programme. Allocated under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) funds, the updated version of URBACT IV Programme foresees EUR 2 million for the participation of cities coming from these two countries.
Starting in early 2024, cities from Ukraine and Moldova will be able to apply, participate in URBACT events, and join URBACT networks. Joining an URBACT network is a unique opportunity to exchange, share knowledge and, ultimately, improve local policies. The eligibility criteria and geographical scope for each URBACT call is further clarified on the corresponding Terms of Reference, which are available on the website once calls for networks are launched. Additionally, considering the specific needs of cities from Ukraine and Moldova, URBACT will propose a bespoke set of capacity building and knowledge activities for the cities of these two countries.
EU legislation and policies have an important impact on urban areas and supporting cities to develop their full potential is one of the key objectives of the EU Cohesion Policy. In this sense, URBACT aims to support cities from Ukraine and Moldova to play a role and to contribute to the integration process into European Union.
*The URBACT IV Monitoring Committee has approved the extension of geographical area of the programme to Ukraine and Moldova on 20 October 2023. The European Commission approved the revision of the programme URBACT IV on 20 December 2023 (Commission decision - 2021TC16FFIR001 - TC - Programme Amendment 2021-2027 - 2.1)
Revised URBACT IV can be consulted here.
