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It’s a wrap-up! GreenPlace cities are now on track to revitalising and green their forgotten and unused places!

After 2.5 years of the URBACT GreenPlace network, the journey now comes to an end. Project partners got to learn from each other on practices that they implement locally covering the themes of circularity, culture and nature-based solutions. They also exchanged about their governance models the ways to engage local communities  activities. Throughout the URBACT methodology they learnt to identify their challenges, develop common visions, define an intervention logic, test some activities and publish an Integrated Action Plan (IAPs). This latter now forms the basis for the on-going and future work of the GreenPlace partner cities!
 

What have been the main outcomes of the GreenPlace journey? Here is what they shared during a last in-person meeting in Limerick late September 2025.

Opening the Door to Talent: What Ten Cities Decided to Do Differently

Final Network Article by Lead Expert Béla Kézy

A Water Museum for Elche: a journey through the Memory of Water

The City of Elche unveils a new cultural space dedicated to its valuable hydraulic heritage promoting citizen engagement with it.

Agents of CoExistence: final network report

Across Europe, cities are searching for new ways to strengthen the relationship between public
institutions and the citizens they serve. Local governments face growing expectations for
transparency, inclusion, and responsiveness, while at the same time dealing with complex societal
challenges, increasing polarization, and rapidly changing technologies. Many traditional approaches to
citizen participation no longer meet the needs of contemporary urban societies.
The Agents of Co-Existence (AoCE) Network was created in response to this changing democratic
landscape. Supported by the URBACT IV program, the network brought together nine partner cities
from across Europe to explore one central question:
How can local governments organize themselves to work more effectively, creatively, and
meaningfully with their citizens?

Rebuilding Democracy from the Inside Out with the Agents of Co-Existence

Picture this: On a Tuesday evening in Aarhus, a group of residents sit around a table with a
local politician. There is no raised platform, no official speeches, no formal agenda handed
down from city hall. The topics have been chosen by the citizens themselves. The discussion
is guided not by a civil servant, but by a neighbour — trained together with municipal staff
as a “Democracy Host”.