EUROCITIES

Founded in 1986, EUROCITIES is a European city network currently composed of more than 150 metropolises with over 250,000 inhabitants each as full members plus another 50 associated partner cities. As a result, EUROCITIES represents in excess of 130 million people in 38 countries.

At the political level, the cities are principally represented by their mayors; specialist thematic deliberations are conducted by experts delegated by the municipal administrations. The Annual General Meeting is the supreme body of EUROCITIES and convenes once every year; between the AGMs, the network's business is managed by the Executive Committee (ExCom), which is composed of twelve cities, one of which is not situated in an EU Member State. All political representatives in the ExCom are assisted by permanent staff members at the administrative level, who handle the co-ordination of positions throughout the year. The business of the network is exclusively conducted in the English language; the organisation is headquartered in Brussels and employs a staff of 50 persons. The activities of EUROCITIES are funded by membership fees and EU subsidies.

Activity range

Since June 2010, the Director of the Vienna Liaison Office in Brussels has been serving as the Viennese administrative representative at the ExCom and hence is charged with the co-ordination of position papers. Within the Vienna City Administration, co-ordination is equally a competence of MA 27 (membership fee, search for partners, reporting, exchange of information, et cetera).

Thematic orientation and working methods

The general thematic work of EUROCITIES is discharged in the context of forums, each of which comprises several working groups:

• Culture Forum
• Economic Development Forum
• Environment Forum
• Knowledge Society Forum
• Mobility Forum
• Social Affairs Forum

Moreover, there exist working groups that due to their cross-cutting character are directly answerable to the ExCom, e.g. on the Urban Agenda for the EU or on public services.

In the context of lobbying activities concerned with key urban policy issues, political representatives of the cities are requested several times throughout the year to outline the positions of the network vis-à-vis the institutions of the EU.

Participation of Vienna

Vienna has been a member of EUROCITIES since 1995; since 2001, it has also been a member of the ExCom, to which it was recently re-elected at the Annual General Meeting held in November 2019 in Prague. The mayor is Vienna's political representative in the ExCom.

Vienna is represented in nearly all forums and working groups – with approximately 40 delegates to about 30 bodies, Vienna is among the most active cities of the network. Staff members of the Vienna City Administration also chair working groups on important questions, for example on social housing (Wiener Wohnen) or public services (MA 27).

Objectives

Dedicated to backing cities' concerns in the EU, EUROCITIES is the only multinational network in which large European cities have direct membership. The work of EUROCITIES always pursues three objectives: First, the network serves as a platform for the exchange of information and experience among cities; second, it supports co-operation on EU projects, and third, it draws upon members' expertise to formulate the position of cities in the European legislative process. This involves for example deliberations on how to use the Structural Funds as well as on social or environmental issues, aspects of services of general interest or cultural issues.

Importance for Vienna

Participation in EUROCITIES is an important element for the exchange of information concerning topical developments at the European level inasmuch as these impact cities and contributes to improving the work of the municipal staff through co-operation efforts and technical exchange, hence also generating benefits for the clients of the City of Vienna. The City of Vienna uses EUROCITIES as a central platform for the efficient advocacy of its interests in Brussels. In addition, the constant exchange of experience and networking activities help to generate new ideas.

Successful examples

In recent years, EUROCITIES has proved an efficient vehicle for successfully asserting Vienna's positions at the European level in the following areas:

• Creating awareness among EU decision-makers regarding the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for cities
• Strengthening the urban dimension within the EU cohesion policy for the 2021-2027 period
• Ensuring a strong position for cities with respect to the platform economy
• Re-establishing the URBAN Intergroup at the European Parliament for the 2019-2024 period
• Demanding a wider interpretation of the right to housing within the European Pillar of Social Rights
• Encouraging a debate on the funding conditions for (growing) cities in the context of the European Semester
• Advocating the inclusion of the social housing issue in the Urban Agenda for the EU
• Demanding that cities – as local public authorities – be exempted from the obligation to sign the EU transparency register
• Successfully preventing the liberalisation of local public transport
• Successfully preventing the liberalisation of the water sector
• Commenting on the Green Paper on Urban Mobility
• Championing the inclusion of the right to cultural diversity in the Charter of Fundamental Rights (thus safeguarding the eligibility of cultural projects for funding)