Europe

Europeanism forms part of the DNA of our City

Europe is a field of action of Barcelona par excellence.  We could say that Europeism forms part of the DNA of the city.  That's why the City Council has made a clear political commitment towards fostering bilateral relations and networking, and within the framework of the European institutions.     

This multilateral action has a double complementary goal.  On the one hand, to facilitate exchanges and projects that enrich the daily management of the city, and on the other hand to contribute to the debate in favour of a Europe in which the role of the cities and the local authorities is recognised and has its own voice.    

In this sense, from the City Council exchanges are maintained with numerous European cities, either within the framework of collaboration or twinning agreements, or in bilateral collaborations that are established so as to tackle specific issues.  The collaboration with cities are also defined by means of the participation in European projects, the municipal coordination of which is carried out from the Department of International Relations. 

Furthermore, Barcelona City Council is committed towards networking, that allows, on the one hand, to join forces of the cities to act as a strong interlocutor in front of the European Institutions, and on the other hand, to have a space of exchange of best practices so as to improve the City Council services to the citizenship.

  • The international strategy of Barcelona includes bilateral relations as one of its pillars, given that the exchange of best practices and cooperation is a tool that helps to improve the management of the city, and therefore, has a direct benefit on the citizenship. It also contributes towards a deepening of the feeling of belonging to the European Union.  

    On the one hand, work is carried out based on cooperation agreements, which habitually present more reduced range of fields of cooperation and with a limited validity in terms of time.  Barcelona has established strong ties with different European cities by means of collaboration agreements in various fields of action.  On the other hand, there have been twinning agreements which have traditionally been an excellent means for opening up abroad and establishing formal contacts with other European cities.  The first city with which there was a twinning agreement was Montpellier, on 23rd November 1963.  

    Current/recent cooperation protocols:

  • On a European scale, it is worth highlighting the participation in Eurocities, the network of major European cities, of which Barcelona was founder member. Barcelona has formed part of its executive committee since 2012.  This network constitutes a large platform with two major goals:

    • On one hand, to provide a voice for the European cities in front of the Community institutions so that the role of the cities as essential actors in the process of the European construction can be recognised - that is to say, to act as a political lobby within the European institutions. 
    • On the other hand, it constitutes a platform for sharing ideas, exchanging experiences and elaborating innovative responses, within the framework of common reality and facing common issues.  The network promotes exchanges, technical cooperation and participation in transnational projects, as well as the organisation of campaigns at a European level, and participation in these.  

    Furthermore, Barcelona was the founder of the Committee of Cities and agglomerations for High Speed and the Mediterranean Corridor, an interest group or informal network, which aims to achieve a global improvement of the Railway Corridor as a whole: high speed, but also regional trains, local trains and freight trains.