Green Digital Charter
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Monday 7 May 2018
17:30 – 20:30
BOZAR, Henry Le Boeuf Hall
(rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Brussels).
Free entrance but registration is required
At a time when Europe is striving to retain its legitimacy and relevance in the face of growing disillusionment and Euroscepticism, cities can provide a critical link to citizens. Participatory decision making, citizens’ initiatives and the involvement of people in policy making at all levels are fundamental to an inclusive and democratic society.
More information on the campaign at http://cities4europe.eurocities.eu/eu-campaign/index.html
Throughout May 2018, EUROCITIES, the network of big European cities, is running the campaign ‘Cities4Europe – Europe for citizens’, a platform for local initiatives that engage people, envision new forms of democracy and map out a common future. Together with BOZAR and the city of Brussels, EUROCITIES is launching this campaign on 7 May in Brussels with a public debate, featuring a panel of national and European leaders as well as actors of urban change, artists and activists.
Speakers:
Ada Colau is the mayor of Barcelona.
Philippe Close is the mayor of Brussels.
Gilles Pargneaux is member of the European Parliament
Ingrid Pecquet is general and financial director of Recyclart
Saskia Sassen is Professor, Columbia University and is member of its Committee on Global Thought (www.saskiasassen.com).
Daniel Termont is the president of EUROCITIES and mayor of Ghent.
Philippe Van Leeuw is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.
Philippe Van Parijs, philosopher and economist, is professor emeritus at the UCL.
Karmenu Vella is the European Commissioner for the Environment.
For the first time in its history, the ICF Global Summit will be taking place in London, 4-6 June 2018, and EUROCITIES was invited to become one of the event partners.
ICF, together with NextGen, is looking forward to welcoming mayors, civic leaders, CIOs and industry representatives from around the world to an iconic city for this unique event. The annual theme is ‘Humanising Data’, which will tackle various topics related to the big data, open data and their contributions to the humanity.
Three full days of inspiring speeches and presentations of practical case studies will be provided in addition to the following key events:
- Urban and Rural Master Classes teaching development strategies based on information and communications technology
- Economic Development Matchmaking for public and private-sector organizations seeking new opportunities.
- Top7 Intelligent Communities Reception, honoring the finalists for the Intelligent Community Awards
- Top7 Conversations with the mayors and administrative leaders of our finalists
- Intelligent Community Awards Dinner, where one of the Top7 is named Intelligent Community of the Year
Join EUROCITIES to debate over the impact of big data and open data on Humanity.
- Tue. 5 June, 14:00 – “Who cares about open data?”
- wed. 6 June, 16:00 – “What does Humanizing data require of us?”
You can find the full program of the ICF Global Summit here:
EUROCITIES members can benefit from a preferential rate. Register by using the code EUROCITIES at the following link.
We are looking forward to meeting many of you in London this June!
In January, city representatives and experts gathered to discuss how to build smarter cities that work for all their residents at the ‘Imagine the Urban Future’ conference co-organised by the Green Digital Charter (GDC) and the EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum (KSF).
This was the first gathering of a series of ‘Imagine the Urban Future’ events, launched by EUROCITIES for 2018, an occasion to take an in-depth look at EUROCITIES’ vision, priorities and actions.
At the conference, participants brought their local experiences in working for a better urban future through the use of ICT and digital technologies, in particular related to environmental challenges and the future of work.
Speakers, workshops’ moderators and city representatives share their views in a series of individual interviews available on our YouTube channel : http://bit.ly/2tTGUUG.
This video gives a summary of the main topics treated at the ‘Imagine the Urban Future’ conference:
As from May 2018, the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will take effect and impact all EU cities, asked to appoint a data protection officer (DPO) and to implement a series of new rules and practices. Sharing good practices related to the implementation of the GDPR has been identified as a priority in the frame of the Data Working Group of EUROCITIES’ Knowledge Society Forum.
More information on https://www.eugdpr.org/
Download the executive-summary_GuiDanCe GDPR training January 22 2018 Bruxelles
Collective brainstorming
To support GDC signatory cities and KSF member cities in understanding the implication of the new privacy rules in the EU, the GuiDanCe project,supporting the implementation of the Charter for the period 2015-2018, organised a technical workshop untited ‘the GDPR demystified‘ on Monday 22 January 2018 in Brussels. [see the call for participation here]
This training was designed to help cities’ data experts to understand the concepts and processes necessary for the data management chain within a city administration to deal with citizens’ privacy while delivering smart services.
The workshop was delivered by Antonio Kung (chair of the EIP-SCC initiative ‘citizen approach to data: privacy-by-design) and Antony Page (GDPR lead for the H2020 Smart Cities & Communities project Sharing Cities).
Presentation of Barcelona roadmap to GDPR compliance
21 participants from 13 cities learned how to conduct a privacy impact assessment (P.I.A) based on four specific and concrete use-cases presented by four volunteering cities:
- A specific application (smart energy sensors in social housing) by the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London;
- A specific application (using non-motorised traffic metrics for optimizing traffic flow, by the city of Eindhoven;
- The general case of open data, by the city of Espoo;
- The general case of building a roadmap for GDPR compliance, by the city of Barcelona.
Among the observations and recommendations produced by the session: the need for trusted party audit – the challenge of handing consent for collecting personal data before the anonymisation process – the linkability issue of collected dataset with other datasets – the impact on city administration…
Read more in the executive-summary_GuiDanCe GDPR training January 22 2018 Bruxelles
Are the cities of the future to be a series of opal blue utopias, or streets of bent necked citizens crouching over screens?
At ‘Imagine the Urban Future’, the Green Digital Charter (GDC) and Knowledge Society Forum (KSF) joint conference held on 23 January, cities and experts gathered to discuss how they could build smarter cities that work for all their residents. How can leaders best mediate the dual tasks of moving their cities forward while ensuring that they are travelling in the right direction?
#KSFcities @clairecourteille on the importance of transformation of working with the municipalities and citizens addressing climate change issues – city of #Uppsala pic.twitter.com/sf2z8AWcjj
— ENoLL (@openlivinglabs) January 23, 2018
Putting the you in utopia
In her welcome speech, Eindhoven’s vice-mayor for innovation and KSF chair, Mary-Ann Schreurs stressed that tech innovation should never be for its own sake, but rather be centred around the citizen, “Let’s put the good life first, let’s put society first, let’s put technology in service of that.”
Anna-Lisa Boni, secretary general of EUROCITIES, suggested that we need open dialogue about the kinds of algorithms our technology will employ, so that citizens can have access to these otherwise opaque systems.
When used right, technology can be a major aid to democratic governance. Daniela Patti, managing director at Eutropian, pointed to the capacity of e-governance systems to increase the diversity of the people that governments connect to. As in Madrid’s Participa LAB, techniques like participatory budgeting and crowdsourcing regulation can put citizens in the driver seat of their cities. Indeed, as Peter Baeck, head of collaborative economy research at Nesta, pointed out, crowdfunding now accounts for 60% of the funding for start ups in the UK. If similar mechanisms can be set up at government level, high uptake can be expected.
Highlights from @GDCharter @EUROCITIEStweet #KSFcities event in #Brussels: thoughtful, productive and informed discussions. Feeling hopeful for the future of European cities… pic.twitter.com/sHx6i60VPI
— Jessica Symons (@Jessicasymons) January 24, 2018
Tech must work for people
Nevertheless, Mr Baeck also warned that cities risk not preparing their residents sufficiently for the technological tidal wave that may be swelling before us. How can cities help the potentially huge numbers of people whose jobs are soon to be automated? Local governments must provide training for people that enables them to switch professions.
Claire Courteille, director of the International Labour Organisation Brussels office, confirmed that the upskilling battle must be fought on two fronts. On one hand, people need to be retrained into careers that require soft skills, creativity, teamwork and collaboration. On the other hand, 40% of the EU workforce has little or no digital literacy – a stark figure. It is essential the training is provided for people so that they can engage in the digital world.
Ms Courteille declared that, “we must reject the idea of techno-predestination. We have to take control, upskill and prepare for rapid change. Life long learning will have to become a reality.”
Giving the example of the guifi.net mesh network, Mr Baeck concluded that people and groups have the potential to act in extremely innovative ways, but they must first be empowered to do so.
Anna Lisa Boni: Cities need to prepare for the future — and to share fears and hopes when actively shaping a way forward, not just wait for things to arrive #KSFcities pic.twitter.com/5Mlvt6Czlp
— Martin Brynskov (@brynskov) January 23, 2018
The future is in our cities
“Cities,” claimed Ms Schreurs, “are the foremost at creating solutions.” It is cities who are focussing on the interoperability of tech on a European level, and working together to create generic technology that delivers local solutions.
However, Ms Schreurs also warned that cities must take control, “You need a concept of what you want your city to be. If you don’t structure the cooperation and organise the governance, it won’t fly.” Markus Bylund, director of IT and digitalisation strategy for the city of Uppsala, emphasised that “If we continue as we are today, we will fail. In the key to the digital future, technology is just 10%, the rest is changing the way we do things.”
@danielapatti questions the impact of giants from the #sharingeconomy on our cities. Genoa tries to do something about it, will other cities follow? #KSFcities @EUROCITIEStweet @Eutropian pic.twitter.com/rzZ9ihpnQe
— GreenDigitalCharter (@GDCharter) January 23, 2018
Taking on the titans
While cities like Amsterdam are bringing giant companies like Airbnb to the negotiating table and bargaining for better solutions, many cities still don’t feel empowered to shape globalisation to their own terms.
“This,” Ms Boni confirmed, “is the time for cities. It is important for cities to join forces by being part of a group that can really change things in policy making, through more funding and attention to cities, but one that also allows cities to work together to pool their insights and to innovate. The best way to predict the future is to create it”.
More imaginings
The series, ‘Imagine the Urban Future’, will continue throughout 2018, with events being organised in each EUROCITIES forum. Through this series of events, and high-impact campaigns such as Cities4Europe, EUROCITIES is taking its own advice by actively shaping the debate around the future that cities want to see within Europe and beyond.
Sustainable, smart, resilient, green, free-flowing, econological, healthy. What will our future city look like?
Digital transition, climate action, everything-as-a-service, sustainable mobility, circular economy. How will our cities operate in the next decades?
Big Data, Internet of Things, blockchain, electromobility. Which technologies will be the game-changers in the foreeseable future?
New governance models, co-creation, citizen participation, public procurement for innovative solutions, innovation management. What are the challenges cities need to tackle?
Register now at http://bit.ly/2k4yzZG
On Tuesday 23 January 2018 will be held EUROCITIES’ annual event on smart cities. Untitled “Imagine the Urban Future: Innovation, Collaboration, Trust”, this full-day conference will focus on trends, technologies and challenges that will shape future European cities. City representatives, high level policy makers and experts from across Europe will debate over expectations, opportunities and the impact of digital technologies in co-creating future cities and societies, with citizens.
The morning panel discussion will be followed by two rounds of parallel technical workshops, in which member cities are called to bring in their specific needs, challenges, concerns and concrete examples. The day will end with the GDC 2017 award ceremony to mark the closing of the GuiDanCe project in February.
MEET OUR FINALISTS
This full-day event is open to the public.
Agenda: GDCAgenda_flyerformat_20180108_final
The conference will be preceeded by a technical training for cities’ data officers on the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). See: http://bit.ly/2Al7bha
Limited number of seats available (25 pers. max). Register now
Under the theme ‘Empower cities, empower people’, Barcelona Smart City Expo 2017 (14-16 November) will gather exhibitors, speakers and visitors around eight areas that make a city a ‘smart’ city: governance, mobility, safety, economy, sustainability, circular economy, society and data & technology. The event will focus on strategies to empower metropolises and their citizens through active participation.
EUROCITIES connects smarter cities across the EU, bringing them together to exchange, share and learn from each other. Our presence in the Congress contributes in raising visibility of what EUROCITIES is doing in terms of city-to-city cooperation. Although becoming smarter means different things to different cities, concerted and coordinated efforts from all levels of governance are essential to tackle broader challenges such as climate change.
Barcelona’s Agora welcomes EUROCITIES on ‘Cities working together to deliver smart solutions’ (Day 1, Tue. 14, 16:30 – 17:30 , Agora Stage)
Federica Bordelot, policy advisor, is actively involved in the Digital Transition partnership established under the Urban Agenda for the EU. Through her work, EUROCITIES contributes in strengthening an open dialogue at the EU level, enabling cities to get directly involved in the development of EU initiatives on smart cities, based on their needs and the challenges they are facing. Apart from this, Federica will also present the current and future work on data and standards developed by the respective knowledge society forum WGs. More information on EUROCITIES website.
Nikolaos Kontinakis, senior project coordinator, will present some of the most remarkable projects developed by city members in the area of energy efficiency, buildings, transport and governance to improve citizens’ quality of life.
‘Leveraging the Potential of City Networks’: EUROCITIES’ approach to international cooperation (Day 1, Tue.14, 17:30-18:30, Room 5).
What can city networks do to improve good governance at the global level and support an international urban ecological transition? EUROCITIES is already involved in two international cooperation projects on sustainable urbanisation with China. To which extent can European cities’ expertise and knowledge be transferred outside Europe to meet our commitments and sustainable development goals?
Speaker: Nikolaos Kontinakis
Networking area and short debates in the European ‘lighthouse’ stand (Pavilion 2, D450 booth)
Our Green Digital Charter/GuiDance and Sharing Cities projects will be glad to welcome you at the Smart Cities and Communities’(SCC) networking space. Several thematic sessions per day, and the opportunity to meet partners involved in all 13 current smart cities ‘lighthouse’ projects funded under the Horizon 2020 programme.
EUROCITIES, in collaboration with the Sharing Cities project, is pleased to invite you to our annual brokerage event on the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities & Communities call.
This year the event is taking place on Thursday 25 October 2017, in Brussels, one day after the official smart cities info day organised by the European Commission and INEA.
This brokerage event will offer an opportunity for cities representatives to develop consortia and project ideas to respond to the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities 2018 call for proposals and to learn from the results of previous projects. It will also provide useful insights on how to develop a successful replication strategy and create investment possibilities that will continue beyond the end of the project lifetime. During the event, cities representatives are invited to present a project idea or their city activities in the area of smart cities, which could contribute to proactive matchmaking between potential actors.
Registration
Participation is free of charge and is reserved to city representatives only or organisations coming on their behalf. Participants need to register before 13 October here : http://bit.ly/2gKj97A.
More information (and detailed agenda) on EUROCITIES website or www.sharingcities.eu
Since 1 January 2017, EUROCITIES is part of the URBAN-EU-CHINA Innovation Platform on Sustainable Urbanisation. Discover all partners involved in this international cooperation project, activities and events on the newly launched website at www.urban-eu-china.eu/en/, and follow the project on Twitter @UrbanEuChina.
In URBAN-EU-CHINA, 12 experienced European and Chinese consortium partners join forces to:
- Promote and develop Joint Policy Strategies for EU-China cooperation on sustainable urbanisation;
- Create a Nursery of Joint Projects, from a board range of low-threshold to a few high-performance projects. EUROCITIES leads work on matching cities and organising event clusters;
- Promote Brokerage of City-Industry-Science Partnerships using virtual and face-to-face meeting place
Next activities
- UEC 2nd Event Cluster 10-12 October 2017, Brussels – More information on www.urban-eu-china.eu
- 2017 China-EU Conference on Sustainable Urbanisation: Innovation-Driven Development in New Areas (focus on the Xiongan new area), 26 October 2017, Beijing
The conference will bring together urban planners, policy makers, industry experts, practitioners, and scholars from around the world to share their insights, experience and solutions to the Innovation-Driven Development in New Areas. Delegates will include representatives from the European Union and Chinese governments, European city mayors, distinguished urbanisation experts, and key decision makers who will discuss innovative-led recommendations for our future approach to sustainable urbanisation, EU-China joint strategies, co-funding, as well as an exchange of knowledge and facilitation of science-city-industry partnerships.
More information on JPI-UrbanEurope.eu
Two ways to register :
- Online registration tickets on EventBrite (here)
- Email registration : please RSVP before 25 September 2017 to Dr. Chang Liu at caupd_eu@163.com indicating the following information (First Name – Last Name – Email Address – Occupation – Company/Organisation – Number of Tickets)
This article was originally published on the Raconteur.net website
Daniël Termont is the mayor of Ghent and EUROCITIES president.
Daniël Termont, Mayor of Ghent and EUROCITIES’ rotating president
“In Ghent, we combine our historical façades with a forward- looking vision. By 2020, I want my city to be open, inclusive, smart and child friendly. Key to this vision are our citizens – we want to build the Ghent of the future together.
Discussions around smart cities are too often driven by technology and industry. I believe cities, and their citizens, are at the core of the smart city transition. Technology is an important ingredient of course: we are looking to innovative solutions to manage our energy and transport systems better, manage, process and visualise data, and make life easier for all.
But we’re not overlooking the low-tech solutions that complement these: well-organised bike paths, for example, and vertical farming.
Technology for us is a means not an end and becoming smarter is about a whole lot more.
We need to find new ways of working together so we can make the most of everyone’s expertise. Public administrations, citizens, businesses and research institutes: we are all part of the same urban ecosystem and we all have something to offer. By pooling our resources, we can create better solutions that truly address our challenges and are owned by the entire city.
In Ghent, we have several tools to make this happen, such as the Ghent Climate Alliance, which is behind our vision of becoming climate neutral. Our Ghent Living Lab is an innovative platform where citizens, developers, researchers and businesses can co-create their city.
Smart cities rely on data, so opening up data is an important initiative for Ghent. Students and developers can use it to work on new solutions, including apps that make life easier for residents, such as a waste collection calendar and an app, ‘Parkmobile‘, to locate available parking spaces in real time.
We’ve even turned it into a competition: our annual hackathon, Apps for Ghent, invites developers to turn our open data into exciting new apps, such as Studio Dott’s PopBike (video), which enables users to calculate the best bike route and share bikes, and Ghendetta, a game that encourages users to explore city districts.
One of the challenges many cities face with opening data is protecting privacy. Citizens need to be able to access, use and manage their data, and for this they need adequate digital skills. This is a priority for Ghent as we want to make sure technology is accessible to everyone.
It is essential then that we create a level playing field. We need common and open standards and better interoperability between systems. This would open the market to more actors and would also bring down costs, and maximise the release, accessibility and usability of data, helping businesses grow.
Working together on projects is a must for testing and scaling up new solutions. Ghent is involved in several, including the Green Digital Charter, through which we commit to reducing our carbon footprint with smart ICT. We also need direct dialogue with European Union decision-makers.
With the Urban Agenda for the EU and the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities, we see new work processes that support the joining up of different levels of government and different sectors. This is a step in the right direction to address European and urban challenges together.
I am looking forward to the journey ahead and I am pleased to be sharing it with my colleagues at EUROCITIES, the network of major European cities. This is where I can bounce off ideas, discover new solutions and find ways to address shared challenges.
As a mayor, I know every corner of my city and have daily contact with citizens. This knowledge is crucial for making smart city solutions work. Working with cities means working with citizens, so by strengthening the links between EU institutions and cities, we are building a stronger Europe.
At 14:00 CET on 14 March, EUROCITIES hosted a public webinar on citizen participation and co-creation in smart cities, where the experiences gathered from the Sharing Cities and Green Digital Charter projects were shared with the participants.
WATCH THE WEBINAR
Reykjavik
Reykjavik
Magnus Y. Josefsson presented the Better Reykjavik collaborative online platform, through which citizens can submit policy proposals to the municipal government. ‘Better Reykjavik‘ was among the shortlisted projects in the “Citizen participation & impact on society” category of the 2016 edition of the GDC Awards.
Find out more about Reykjavik’s SMART projects and priorities here.
Milan
Milan
During a recent peer-learning visit organised in Milan in the frame of the Sharing Cities project, ‘fellow’ city representatives heard a presentation about the host city’s civic crowdfunding practices.
Find out more about Milan’s SMART projects and priorities here.
About Sharing Cities
Sharing Cities (www.sharingcities.eu) ‘lighthouse’ programme is a proving ground for a better, common approach to making smart cities a reality. By foestering international collaboration between industry and cities, the project seeks to develop affordable, integrated, commercial-scale smart city solutions with a high market potential. The project partners work in close cooperation with the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) and with other ‘lighthouse’ consortia. Sharing Cities offers a framework for citizen engagement and collaboration at local level, thereby strenghtening trust between cities and citizens. The project draws on €24 million in EU funding. It aims to trigger €500 million in investment and to engage over 100 municipalities across Europe.
In an interview published in the EU Smart Cities Information System’s April 2016 newsletter, Nikolaos Kontinakis gives an insight into his motives and experiences as project coordinator for the knowledge society and smart cities projects of EUROCITIES, Brussels, and talks about his perception of ‘sustainable smart cities’.
Nikolaos Kontinakis coordinates the Green Digital Charter initiative and EUROCITIES work for the development of a performance measurement framework for smart cities under the CITYkeys project and the promotion of green ICT via the ICTfootprint.eu project. He also represents EUROCITIES in the SSCC-CG of CEN/CENELEC. For the last 15 years, he has worked as a project coordinator and researcher in the areas of ICT, energy policy and the smart and sustainable development of local authorities.
Read the full interview on the EU Smart Cities Information System’s website: www.smartcities-infosystem.eu
