News
News
Applications for international cooperation subsidies rise by 45%
A total of 211 projects are seeking subsidies this year from the funds available for international cooperation, a 45.5% rise compared to last year. Almost half the projects correspond to the section on education for global justice. The budget allocation for this year’s subsidies is at least 4,670,000 euros, 15% more than last year.
This is the first time the application process has been operated entirely online, the aim being to simplify and speed up procedures and rationalise the number of documents to be presented, reducing them significantly. The idea is also to refocus the subsidies, moving towards a wider model of cooperation to make Barcelona a globally responsible city.
The process maintains the three programmes from the last few years, but now groups them together as cooperation for global justice, cooperation for global justice in specific cities (focusing on backing local governments in cities in rolling out municipal policies) and education for global justice.
The "Tour de l'Amitié" of the twin city of Cologne comes from Turin to Barcelona by bike
On 21 May, Pablo Sanchez, Director of International Relations, received a group of 11 employees from the City of Cologne, who cycled to Barcelona from Turin, on a bike tour known as the Tour de l'amitié. The objective is to cycle to those European cities either twinned or sharing a close relationship with Cologne. A few years back, the first stage took them from Cologne to Turin. Deputy Mayor Andreas Wolter received the delegation as they arrived in Barcelona, representing Mayor Henriette Rekers who was, unfortunately, unable to attend due to health problems.
Cologne and Barcelona have been twinned since 1984 and enjoy one of the most active partnerships thanks to a citizen association promoting theserelations. Today, both cities are partners in the EU GrowSmarter Project, led by Stockholm. This Lighthouse project, devoted to smart city technologies, is the highest funded European project at €32,521,771, participated in by Barcelona.
Barcelona participates in Eurocities Cooperation Platform
On 13 and 14 May Porto hosted the Cooperation Platform, the annual meeting of Eurocities’ contact officers. This year, over 120 participants from 75 member cities took part, among them Barcelona, as a member of the network and of the Executive Committee.
The meeting was organised around several lectures and discussions, such as the Urban Agenda, smart cities and employment, these being the main initiatives being currently driven by the network, as well as advice about getting municipal City Council departments involved in European projects and initiatives.
The meeting is also an opportunity to receive detailed information about the different services that Eurocities can offer its members and to have the chance to get to know those working in the Eurocities headquarters in Brussels, as well as the contact officers from different member cities across Europe.
During the course of the Cooperation Platform, both the Network’s second technical meeting of the Executive Committee as well as an extraordinary meeting to approve the annual accounts were held, the latter in adherence to Belgian law.