History At the informal ministerial conference on urban policy 'Cities Empower
Europe' on 30 November 2004, the EU Ministers for urban policy agreed to develop
a pilot project for a European urban knowledge exchange network. The overall
objective of the European Urban Knowledge Network is to assist Member States,
cities and other urban players with their knowledge requirements relating to
urban issues. This knowledge exchange network will build on experiences of the
existing URBACT Programme but also aims to cover a wider range of policies and
cities, including those outside the current URBAN initiative. The main objective
of the pilot is to realise a sustainable and effective knowledge network between
European cities and knowledge institutes in the period 2007-2013.
The EUKN pilot project is being carried out under the auspices of the
Dutch Ministry of the Interior and
Kingdom Relations (BZK) with the voluntary participation of other Member
States and the support of URBACT. The EUKN Secretariat is housed at the Nicis
Institute in The Hague, the Netherlands. Member States have been invited to
bring in partners to actively participate in the pilot project.
By the time of the project Kick Off meeting, which took place in The Hague on
25 May 2005, the number of participating Member States had risen from five to
fifteen. The major European city network, EUROCITIES, had decided to join the
EUKN as well. At the Kick Off meeting the EUKN was given a definite go-ahead.
The first phase of the EUKN pilot, 2005-2006, was be developed under the
auspices of the URBACT Programme, via an URBACT Working group.
After months of preparations and intensive deliberations amongst members and
partners, the EUKN saw its first release on 27 October 2005. Urban policy makers
from all over Europe were present to join EUKN members and partners at the EUKN
'GoLive!' event in Paris.
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