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Solidarity with the refugees. Ghent: an inspiring city for Europe

The city of Ghent (BE) has been awarded an URBACT Good Practice for its policy towards refugees that fled wars and conflicts to find a new home in Belgium. This Good Practice, called “Refugee Solidarity” has been managed through the Refugee Task Force set up in Ghent in August 2015, an innovative action recognized for its quality and success factors at European level.

Ghent - Integrated Action Plan

Ghent, smart city of people

The city of Ghent  truly believes the future of Europe will be made in and by cities and creative citizens. So we are pleased we can play our international role within the Interactive Cities network and fully contribute to the URBACT program.

Debrecen - Integrated Action Plan

Two main driving forces helped the creation of the Integrated Action Plan of Debrecen within the Interactive Cities URBACT III project. On one hand, the Strategy for Developing Digital Literacy in Debrecen was set up in 2017 and identified 3 fields of digitalization that should be developed. Two of them is aiming to improve the digital presence of both businesses and public authorities and to give a boost to digital communication for all stakeholders. On the other hand, the Municipality delegated the tasks of developing SME sector to EDC Debrecen, which is a non-profit organization for urban and business development owned by the Municipality and the University of Debrecen. One field of this development is the communication in both offline and online forms.

Living labs for decarbonisation

The Municipality of Braga has established as one of its strategic objectives the promotion of the change in the life of the city, investing in the construction of a more sustainable, inclusive and innovative environment.

"5 Guidelines" - cycling promotion in Bielefeld in general

As a long-time member of the "Working Group for Cycling-Friendly Cities, Districts and Municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia" (AGFS NRW), cycling promotion is playing an important role in all transport planning in Bielefeld. Nevertheless, there are potentials in cycling that have not yet been fully exploited: after all, almost 50% of all journeys by car are shorter than 5.0 km and therefore actually the ideal cycling distance. An increase in the share of cycle traffic in the total traffic volume, which currently stands at 18%, is thus feasible, but requires a consistent cooperation of planners and decision-makers.

As a basis for this, the city council decided in June 2016 on five guiding principles that were formulated because of the "Bicycle Police Audit" (BYPAD) by the transport policy relevant groups:

1. Increasing the share of cycling to 25% by 2025
2. Development of a bicycle traffic concept
3. Develop and strengthen infrastructure
4. Expand service / communication / public relations
5. Create work structures

Genova - Integrated Action Plan

The main purpose of our Integrated Action Plan is to find and underline the enormous possibilities that the use of social media and digital technologies are opening in the present of public administration; and, in the specific, Genoa, will explore the role of digital communication for an effective city branding and attractiveness promotion.