Concluding the French EU Council Presidency

On 24 June, the meeting of the Directors General for Urban Matters (DGUM) was held in Paris as the last meeting under the French EU Council Presidency.

Reuniting representatives of all EU Member States, the European Commission, and relevant stakeholders, this meeting represented an important milestone in the framework of intergovernmental cooperation on urban matters and for the new phase of the Urban Agenda for the EU (UAEU).

The French Presidency contributed greatly to the agenda of the day, presenting the outputs of its programme to steer the discussion on just-city-making, strengthened urban-territorial linkages, and, together with the European Commission, on the two new UAEU partnerships on Greening Cities and Sustainable Tourism.

The French Presidency urban programme was developed and implemented in strong cooperation with the EUKN, long-standing partner of EU Council Presidencies. Together, we organised a number of activities, the main ones being: 

• The Art of Just-City-Making, a series of three Policy Labs exploring how to create just cities in a green, productive, and digital manner. Emphasising the relevance of integrated approaches towards sustainable urban development, the series contributed to the creation of recommendations for policymakers on how to create just cities. These were discussed
• The Policy Lab ‘Weaving the urban-territorial fabric to build more resilient European territories‘, an exchange platform for urban and territorial policymakers to discuss the energy and food production crisis in Europe and how to address it with strenghtened urban-territorial linkages. Main takeaways of the event were presented at the DGUM, informing the discussion of Director Generals for both urban and territorial matters.
• The support to the Ex-Ante Assessment process, steered by the Presidency and the European Commission, and welcomed during the DGUM. The process lead to the launch of the open call for partners for UAEU thematic partnerships on Greening Cities and Sustainable Tourism.

We congratulate the French Presidency for what it achieved and the important discussions it led. We are grateful to have been chosen as the Presidency’s strategic support partner. We now look forward to supporting Czech EU Council Presidency in the upcoming six months.