Today the European Commission launched the 16th EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK, a flagship campaign for Mobility and Transport, taking place from 16 to 22 September 2017. More than 2,000 towns from Europe and beyond have organised events to encourage residents to try out alternatives to traditional means of transport.

Commissioner Bulc said: “Shared mobility is a smart and innovative emerging model of transportation, with the potential to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads: for example, for each shared car, 15 private cars are off the road. But it's not only about cars; we are witnessing a real spurt of shared bike systems in cities and towns across the EU. We need to ensure that the future of urban mobility is both shared and sustainable."

The theme of the 2017 campaign is ‘Clean, shared and intelligent mobility’, with the call-to-action ‘Sharing gets you further’.

This year’s EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK encourages people to use shared forms of transportation such as bicycle and car sharing. Europe is the leader in shared mobility solutions and the value of transactions in shared mobility in Europe was estimated at EUR 5.1 billion in 2015. It is expected to exceed EUR 100 billion in 2025. Sharing transportation not only helps people save money, but also support the EU's goals of achieving a low-emission economy.

Every year, local authorities making significant efforts to promote sustainable urban mobility during the campaign, can apply for the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award until 23 October 2017.

In 2017, for the first time, small municipalities will have their own category within the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award. This means that two awards will be presented: one for municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and one for municipalities with 50,000 inhabitants or more.

Local authorities can also apply for the Award for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP Award) until 3 November 2017. The SUMP Award rewards the development of a mobility plan addressing the diverse transport needs of people and businesses.

On 18 July 2017, around 50 local campaigners joined the webinar “Small municipalities doing big things during EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK”. The webinar focussed on how smaller municipalities can organise successful activities during EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK.

Small municipalities ranging in size from 3,000 to roughly 70,000 inhabitants from across Europe presented the activities they organised during the 2016 campaign. Presentations came from Bissen (Luxembourg), Farkadona (Greece), Gioia del Colle (Italy), Katrineholm (Sweden), Kozani (Greece), Labin (Croatia), Pančevo (Serbia) and Xanthi (Greece). Some had participated in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK in 2016 for the first time, while others have longer experience with the campaign.

From a bus-stop book booth to pop-up parks, car-free days to “Intelligent bus stops”, each city had innovative and unique ideas for promoting sustainable mobility in their communities. A common goal was to engage citizens in the process, which – according to the organisers – leads to the best outcome. Labin used a social media photo competition to raise awareness among citizens, while Xanthi launched a comprehensive communication plan with radio, television and newspaper coverage.

Listening to the enthusiastic organisers, one thing became clear: it doesn’t take a lot of money to organise a great sustainable mobility activity. Through dedicated local organisers and strong local partnerships, it’s possible to re-imagine how transportation works in our communities. It’s not just about large cities with vast public transport fleets – small municipalities have a pivotal role to play.

In 2017, for the first time, small municipalities will have their own award category for the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award. This means that two awards will be given out: one for municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and one for municipalities with 50,000 inhabitants or more. The application period will open on 22 September 2017, the final day of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK 2017.

The webinar also included a short presentation on the Thematic Guidelines for the 2017 theme – “Clean, shared and intelligent mobility”. Looking towards the upcoming edition of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK, more than a few ideas for linking this year’s theme to local activities were exchanged.

A recording of the webinar can be viewed below or by clicking here.

The European Commission has launched the competition for the 2020 European Green Capital and 2019 European Green Leaf Awards. With more than two thirds of Europeans now living in towns and cities, finding innovative and better environmentally sustainable solutions is necessary to manage and improve how we live, travel, and work. European Green Capitals and Green Leafs provide inspiration and motivation to help other cities find solutions, on both a European and a global stage.

To celebrate the 10th year of the European Green Capital competition and to encourage more cities to apply, the European Commission will award a financial incentive of €350,000 to the winning city of the 2020 European Green Capital title (cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants) and €75,000 to the winner of the European Green Leaf 2019 title (smaller cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants).

Winning Green Capital and Green Leaf cities enjoy increased levels of tourism, positive international media coverage, increased international profiles, networks and alliance opportunities, foreign investment, and momentum to continue improving their environmental sustainability.

To help cities get started, the European Commission has organised a dedicated Applicant Workshop to be held on 27 June 2017 in Brussels (Belgium). The day will provide an overview of the competition process, include tips on how to complete the application, and will provide an opportunity to meet cities that have gone through the application process before. To register, contact [email protected]

Both the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf Awards are open to cities in EU Member States, EU Candidate Countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The deadline for applications for both competitions is 18 October 2017.

For more information, visit the European Green Capital Award website.

On 30 May, more than 100 representatives from towns and cities in Greece got together to get inspiration and prepare the organisation of EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK, which takes place from 16 to 22 September.

The aim of the gathering was to establish a real network of local campaigners to exchange experience and know-how. Participation in EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK has increased remarkably in Greece over the past years, growing from 8 municipalities in 2013 to 86 municipalities in 2016.

The Greek Minister for Environment and Energy, Socrates Famelos, kicked off the day with a speech highlighting the role of cities that first invested in the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. The Greek Government recently launched a fund to support sustainable urban mobility projects in municipalities with more than 25,000 inhabitants.

The European Secretariat was represented by Juan Caballero, who gave some tips and tricks to Greek municipalities on how to prepare their campaign and apply for the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award. Greek National Coordinators Vasilis Tikos and Kaliopi Papadaki then presented the user-friendly registration system to local campaigners. They also reaffirmed their commitment in supporting Greek municipalities to prepare for EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK.

The urban transport roadmaps tool, developed for DG Move, European Commission, by Ricardo Energy & Environment and Trasporti e Territorio, is a web-based tool to help city authorities develop urban transport roadmaps that address the most pressing environmental, social and economic issues faced by their transportation systems between now and 2030.

The tool provides cities with the ability to identify, develop, screen and assess different transport policies and measures. In particular, it helps cities to quickly and easily assess the likely costs and impacts of measures that could help them improve the sustainability of their transport systems. Cities can explore combinations of different policy scenarios and assess the impacts of these scenarios on the environment, safety, mobility, the economy and the city’s transport system. This type of scenario analysis helps cities to rapidly identify which policy measures are likely to be useful in supporting their own urban transport sustainability goals.

A key benefit of the tool is that users do not need any prior experience in transport modelling. The tool is user-friendly, and has a simple and intuitive graphical user interface.

For more information, visit www.urban-transport-roadmaps.eu