News

02.05.2007
Germany introduces far-reaching measures on buildings’ energy efficiency
At the end of 2007, the German federal government will introduce mandatory energy certificates for existing buildings. This was announced by Mr Wolfgang Tiefensee, the federal minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, at the EU/G8 conference...read more

01.05.2007
Chicago named as “top city of the future”
Chicago has been named as North America’s ‘major city of the future’. Toronto came second in the survey, while Guadalajara was the highest-ranking major Mexican city. Windsor, Ontario, ranked highest among ‘small cities of the future’.read more

01.05.2007
Programme to combat violence against women and children to be approved by European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is expected to approve the Daphne III programme during its 21-24 May plenary session in Strasbourg. The Council of the European Union has already adopted the proposal on 5 March 2007. The Daphne programme supports organis...read more

26.04.2007
European Diversity Truck hits the road
The European Diversity Truck hit the road in Strasbourg yesterday and embarked on its tour across Europe. The journey will take in 19 countries, covering more than 18,000 km. Visiting city centres, universities, job fairs, and public festivals, the m...read more

26.04.2007
Startling differences in educational performance of the second generation in Europe
Across Europe, there are wide disparities in the educational achievements of second-generation immigrants. This is revealed by a case study of vocational track pupils with Turkish parents in five European countries (Germany, Austria, The Netherlands,...read more

25.04.2007
Report identifies progress on Lisbon targets – more local involvement needed
It is the EU’s ambition to make Europe the most dynamic and competitive economy in the world by 2010. The British Work Foundation has recently published the report “Knowledge economy in Europe”, measuring Europe’s progress. The report compares the de...read more

25.04.2007
European Center for Migration to manage flow of highly skilled immigrants
The European Centre for Migration Policies has been launched during a round table on high skilled labour flows in Brussels, on 18 April 2007. Its main mission will be to act as the bridge between Europe's local and regional government, and the Europe...read more

23.04.2007
“Cities are not the problem. Cities are the solution!”
When dealing with issues of immigration and integration, the environment and global competition, cities are not the problem but the solution. This is the opinion of Carol Coletta, director of CEOs for Cities, a leading American think tank on urban is...read more

18.04.2007
No place for the handicapped in most European taxis
In most European countries less than 10 per cent of the taxi fleet is accessible for wheelchair users. There are more than 45 million disabled people across Europe. Therefore, it is clearly important that accessibility to taxi services should be impr...read more

18.04.2007
OECD presents Territorial Review of the Randstad, the Netherlands
On 11 April 2007, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published its Territorial Review of the Randstad urban area. The Randstad is the poly-centric urban area in the west of the Netherlands, comprising Amsterdam, Rotterda...read more

17.04.2007
Bigger and better roads can be environmentally sustainable (or not?)
The transport sector is responsible for 14 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions. Many green civil society organisations therefore want to curb the funding for road transport in favour of more sustainable transport systems, such as (light)rail. As...read more

17.04.2007
Register now for Europan 9 – the urban design competition for Europe’s young architects and urban design professionals
Europan is a European urban design competition that brings to the fore Europe’s young architecture and urban design professionals. It gives them the opportunity to publicise and develop their ideas. The theme of Europan 9 is ‘European urbanity – sust...read more

16.04.2007
Europol report analyses threat of terror
On 10 April Europol published its first EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT 2007). The report indicates that 498 attacks were carried out by Islamist, separatist, left-wing and anarchist terrorist groups in eleven EU member states in 2006...read more

11.04.2007
'Cities need to invest 40 trillion dollars in infrastructure'
Cities around the world need to invest 40 trillion dollarsto upgrade inadequate and out-of-date infrastructure or risk losing their workforce to locations with better services, according to a report published by consultant Booz Allen Hamilton.read more

06.04.2007
EC: European universities and businesses need to strengthen relations
On 4 April 2007, the European Commission has published a communication on the relation between the European academic world and European business. According to the communication, an average university in Europe generates far fewer inventions and paten...read more

05.04.2007
“An integrated society is not the sole responsibility of the municipality: all inhabitants need to be involved in the process”
The town of Oss in the Netherlands used to have a ‘categorical’ integration policy. “The municipality addressed immigrants as a separate group, not as regular inhabitants. In addition, the native-born people of Oss were not involved in the integratio...read more

05.04.2007
CoR ‘Declaration for Europe’: more respect for local and regional diversity, identity and autonomy
The Committee of the Regions (CoR) celebrated Europe’s 50th birthday in Rome on 23 March. At the main ceremony the CoR adopted its ‘Declaration for Europe’, which calls for a new ‘bond of trust’ between the European Union (EU) and its citizens. Respe...read more

04.04.2007
Social cohesion indicators to measure your city’s policy effectiveness
European societies are facing growing disparities in individual wealth and well-being. To reverse this trend, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities urges towns and regions to develop social cohesion indicators with which they can assess and ...read more

04.04.2007
Map for city migration now on-line
Which cities around the world attract most immigrants? The Global City Migration Map Tool provides an easy-to-understand visual of immigrants’ urban destinations. It is freely available on-line. The map tool is developed by the Migration Policy Infor...read more

03.04.2007
Increased attention for violence and racism in sport
Politicians, academics, NGOs and sport federations are all calling for more attention to violence and racism around sport events. The Council of Europe (CoE) is organising a conference on 'Sports, Violence and Racism in Europe' on 2-5 April 2007. The...read more