Providing all the knowledge cities need for green transition: this is the main goal of Portico, the platform developed by the European Urban Initiative (EUI), that was launched on the 10th of October 2023 during the 21st edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities.
Portico is a European urban knowledge platform funded by the European Union (EU) to support cities but also managing authorities, who implement the green transition in their territories. Its objective is to collect knowledge resources, facilitate the access to them and ensure that cities are supported and have all the necessary tools when it comes to implementing sustainable development. Those resources come from different organisations, initiatives, and a close collaboration with EU Cohesion Policy partners. Cities and citizens are invited to join the growing community of Portico and discover the best practices that they could enact to promote green transition projects. They can also search for available funding in their regions, take advantage of them and connect with other actors to exchange ideas and experiences on urban issues.
The first partner of the platform was Urbact, a European Territorial Cooperation program, funded under the Cohesion policy and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of EU member states.
“Our main objective is to promote integrated urban development in Europe. We do this through three main activities.”, said Evgenia Koutsomarkou, Head of knowledge and communication of Urbact. The first one is networking activities. Urbact launches calls for networks so cities can decide for themselves on which topic they want to work on green transition, encourages them and gives them funding and a methodology through thematic networks. Secondly, cities are empowered with specific tools, methods, and training on how to develop these action plans. The third ones are knowledge activities. “We are going to have specific thematic activities for cities, (…) because we believe that all online platforms are good (…), but it is a different thing to experience that knowledge”, Koutsomarkou concludes.
The platform was presented during an interactive session with round table discussions about different approaches to green transition in each table, to understand what kind of knowledge is produced in different programmes and branches of the EU. The speakers of the sessions were Heather Brooks, representative of Eurocities, Evgenia Koutsomarkou, Head of unit of Urbact Secretariat, Pia Laurila, administrator of European Commission Directorate General of Regions, and Maria Yeroyanni, representative of European Commission Directorate General for Research and Innovation. Participants, representing different regions, were sitting at specific tables, with specific topics and moderators, exchanging ideas on the main challenges related to green transition, the needs that must be fulfilled and how the EU and Portico can help in this process.
At the end of discussions, every table presented the topics that emerged from the brainstorming, from challenges to solutions and suggestions for Portico. Some of the main challenges that were pointed out were the difficulty in accessing the funds, often because of a heavy legal framework, and the lack of capacity and participation of citizens. As a solution, making people interested in green transition in their cities could play a significant role.
By Eleni Nearchou, Serena Zagami
Edited by Nina Bo Wagner
