Europe’s biggest cities believe the European Commission’s definition of innovation is too narrowly focused on the commercial and research sectors. In an interview with EurActiv, Paul Bevan, secretary-general of Eurocities, said Europe’s urban centres are teeming with examples of social, organisational and market-driven innovation.

The search for the 2012 European Capital of Sports is now underway, Dublin, Ireland, being the current title holder for 2010 and Valencia, Spain, having already been designated as such for the year 2011.

The City Marketing and Development Congress is a long-term international project aimed at assisting Russian regions and cities to improve their image, attract more investment and increase their competitiveness.  

The Regional International Conference SB10mad “Sustainable Building. Revitalization and Rehabilitation of districts”, is one of the preparatory events of the World Sustainable Building Conference, SB2011 Helsinki.

The Bristol Partnership has launched a website that allows residents to put forward ideas to improve the city. It includes an online voting system that allows participants to comment and vote for their favourite ideas.

After selling off their electricity and gas networks to large energy corporations in the early 1990s, small towns in Germany are now banding together to buy back their energy infrastructure. Their bid to get into the energy market may provide opportunities to make money, but it also involves taking on the energy giants at their [...]

The Committee of the Regions last week dived into the debate on the future of EU regional policy, calling on the European Commission to broadly maintain the status quo while paying increased attention to so-called “transition regions”. Debate on the future of EU regional policy has been intensifying since May 2009, when an expert report [...]

SCUPAD is an independent, non-profit, international network organisation of planners and development specialists based in Austria that was set up in 1965. Every year the organisation organises an international conference. The 2010 edition ‘Bringing Production Back to the City’ will focus on the various means of urban production ranging from manufacturing to the emergence of [...]

The last 20 years have seen a growing interest in cohousing and other alternative forms of living in Sweden as well as internationally. The search for a sense of community remains an important driving force behind demands for cohousing. During the last ten years new aspects have been added, such as housing for the “second [...]

The challenge of European cities is to invent today a tomorrow where quality of life goes hand in hand with low energy consumption. A thousand local authorities are already preparing their futures by committing to the Covenant of Mayors. In defiance of financial and economic pressures, they are changing the direction of their energy policies [...]