TELECONFERENCE ABOUT THE MEMORANDUM OF COOPERATION
FOR THE EUROPEAN MISSION “100 CLIMATE NEUTRAL CITIES BY 2030”
WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF  VASILEIOS TSIAKOS

In the presence of the Secretary General Of Spatial Planning and Urban Environment of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, Mr. Efthymios Bakoyannis and the Deputy- Director of the Department for Mobility and Transport DG Move Mr. Matthew Baldwin, on Thursday January 27th, a teleconference was held for the announcement of the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the 21 candidate Municipalities for the European Mission “100 Climate Neutral Cities by 2030” and the General Secretariat for Spatial Planning and Urban Environment of the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

The parties to the Cities Pact 2030 are the Municipalities of Agrinion, Alexandroupolis, Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands, Heraklion, Ioannina, Kalamaria, Kalamata, Karditsa, Kozani, Mytilene, Thessaloniki, Trikala, the Association for the Development of West Athens (Municipalities of Agia Varvara, Agioi Anargiroi – Kamatero, Egaleo, Ilion, Korydallos, Peristeri, Petroupolis, Fyli, Chaidari) and the General Secretariat for Spatial Planning and Urban Environment, Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy.

The event was also attended by representatives of the General Secretariat of the European Mission for Climate Neutral and Smart Cities and outgoing members of the Mission Board, such as Mr. Chrysses Nicolaides.

The aim of this Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities Pact (‘Cities Pact’) is to speed up the Cities’ transition to climate-neutrality and digital transformation by 2030 within the framework of the European Mission on ‘Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities’ and at the same time to contribute to the recovery of the Cities’ economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main areas of cooperation are ον the following sections:

• On the EU Green Deal and better implementation of environmental and sustainable urban policy, including the Green City Accord and the Covenant of Mayors.
• On integrated climate action and resilience with a view to the Paris Agreement commitments, the EU Climate law, and the EU Adaptation Strategy and Just Transition.
• On localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in Cities with a view to make Cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
• On biodiversity and nature-based solutions with a view to the Post-2020 biodiversity policy framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
• On sustainable public procurement, strategic, circular and innovation procurement.
• On the circular economy including the European Circular Cities Declaration and the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.
• On Smart City solutions and data-sharing with a view towards to an inclusive digital transformation, an in line with the European Digital Strategy.
• Dissemination of and input to relevant Mission Cities projects and participation to Horizon Europe calls.
• Integration and promotion in the Climate-Neutrality Action Plans of the values and the principles of the New European Bauhaus initiative.
• Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning in Municipal Regions and sustainable food
• Sustainable finance and investment.

The Deputy- Director Matthew Baldwin emphasized the importance of the Mission

Matthew Baldwin is a European Commission official: he is Deputy Director-General of DG MOVE where he has been since July 2016.  Amongst his principal professional activities, he is Manager of the Commission’s Mission for 100 Climate Neutral Cities by 2030; he is the EU Coordinator for road safety and sustainable urban mobility; and he is also managing the Commission’s crisis network of COVID-19 transport contact points.

Mr. Matthew Baldwin welcomed the action of the of twenty-one (21) Greek Municipalities to participate in the process of selecting the 100 climate neutral poles by 2030 and stressed that this Memorandum of Cooperation of Greek cities is an example for the other EU Member States. which should adopt this particularly important initiative.

The Secretary General Efthymios Bakoyannis stated the support of the Ministry of Environment and Energy of the Greek Candidacies

The Secretary General Spatial Planning and Urban Environment of YPEN, Mr. Efthymios Bakoyannis, pointed out that Ministry of Environment and Energy, throughout the last 2 years, is working on the preparation of the Greek participations in collaboration with Mr. Chrysses Nicolaides and Maria Vasilakou, former members of the Mission Board. In addition, he emphasized to the fact that the Greek cities have special characteristics, which make them particularly important for the collection of data from the southeastern Mediterranean that will contribute to the goal of climate neutrality throughout Europe by 2050, through the Green Agreement.