European Urban Initiative: 20 innovative projects selected to transform cities across Europe
- 31 March 2025
The European Commission and the Hauts-de-France Region, as the Entrusted Entity for the European Urban Initiative (EUI), have announced the results of the third call for innovative actions. With €94 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), 20 selected projects from 13 EU Member States will test innovative solutions in real urban environments, supporting cities in their transition to a greener and more digital future. Projects include giving a second life to used EV batteries in Tilburg, the Netherlands, and repurposing vacant public buildings for the needs of the community in Košice, Slovakia. Each project will receive up to €5 million from ERDF, co-financing 80% of the eligible costs.
Beyond their implementation in selected cities, these projects will serve as blueprints for other urban areas across Europe. A part of this funding will also support knowledge transfer and the replication of successful solutions tested by these projects in other EU cities, further amplifying their societal and economic impact.
The full list of winners can be consulted on EUI website.
Member of the College of Commissioners said:
Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms Raffaele Fitto:
The EU is committed to bold, transformative urban innovation and the projects awarded today will reimagine our cities as greener, smarter, and more inclusive spaces. These pioneering actions—each a beacon of ingenuity—will serve not only their own communities but become blueprints for Europe as a whole.
Xavier Bertrand, President of Hauts-de-France Region (EUI Entrusted Entity) said:
European cities are key players in territorial innovation: their mobilisation, commitment, and creativity provide the opportunity to tackle the major challenges of transitions. Once again, European urban authorities have come together to propose innovative, sustainable, and transferable solutions at the European level within the framework of the 3rd call for projects of the European Urban Initiative, which focused on the challenges of energy and technological transitions. The 20 projects, coming from 13 Member States, selected by the Hauts-de-France Region and the European Commission, reflect the shared ambitions to address the urban challenges to which the Hauts-de-France Region is fully committed. I warmly congratulate the mayors and elected representatives of European cities and local authorities, as well as all their partners. Their projects demonstrate the innovative capacity of territories in the context of a Cohesion policy that is essential for today's and tomorrow's territorial development.
Background
In the 2021-2027 programming period, Cohesion policy has a strong urban dimension, and its support to sustainable urban development has been reinforced to help cities take active role in designing and implementing policy responses to their local challenges and needs.
As a result, cohesion funds will invest over €100 billion in cities, with more than €24 billion directly managed by cities for designing and implementing investments under Cohesion policy programmes.
The EUI is a key instrument of the European Union’s Cohesion policy, specifically targeting city authorities to strengthen urban innovation and capacity- and knowledge-building for sustainable urban development. The EUI allows cities to test innovative and creative solutions to address their specific urban challenges, ensuring that the solutions developed and tested are transferable and replicable across other EU cities.
The 20 projects selected today will join to the community of 36 ongoing projects selected within the previous two calls: the first call (in 2022), which focused on the New European Bauhaus, and the second call (in 2023), which was dedicated to themes on greening cities, sustainable tourism, and harnessing talent in shrinking cities.
With a budget of EUR 395 million, the EUI builds on the legacy of the Urban Innovative Actions, the Commission's initiative implemented during the 2014-2020 programming period, but it has a stronger focus on innovation led by cities themselves and on sustainability of innovation as well as replicability in other cities.
Beyond innovation, the EUI supports the capacities of all urban areas across the EU. It provides evidence for policymaking and shares knowledge on sustainable urban development, including via the Urban Agenda for the EU and Portico, the European urban knowledge platform.
The experience of the EUI implementation will also contribute to the preparation of a comprehensive EU Agenda for Cities in the course of 2025 that is aimed at taking stock of EU initiatives and instruments the European Commission has put in place over the years with a view to streamlining and simplifying the current support and making it accessible to all potential city beneficiaries. The Agenda also aims to examine how to enhance processes through which the concerns of cities could be stronger reflected in future EU policy making. The call for evidence concerning the content of the Agenda targeted at the public at large will soon be opened at the Have your say portal of the European Commission.
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