Page 14 - Economy_Local Development

14

In contrast to traditional transport planning approaches, the new concept places particular emphasis on
the involvement of citizens and stakeholders, the coordination of policies between sectors (transport, land
use, environment, economic development, social policy, health, safety, energy, etc.), between authority
levels and between neighbouring authorities. Sustainable urban Mobility Plans require a long-term and
sustainable vision for an urban area and take account of wider societal costs and benefits with the aim of
“cost internalisation” and stress the importance of evaluation.

Useful tools to achieve these objectives are the Urban Development Network the “Urban Innovative
1
Actions” initiative. The network consists of over 500 cities/urban areas across the EU responsible for
2
implementing integrated actions based on ERDF-funded sustainable urban development strategies in the
period 2014-2020. The mission of the Network is to:

● examine how European funds are implemented on the ground in European cities and towns

● Support the exchange of information between cities involved in Integrated Sustainable Urban
Development and Innovative Urban Actions

● Promote direct dialogue between the Commission and cities on sustainable urban development.

“Urban Innovative Actions” is a European Union initiative to test innovative ideas and support urban
authorities in their efforts to ensure sustainable urban development. It is rooted in a strong commitment
at the European level to strengthen the urban dimension of EU policies.

Cohesion policy addresses diverse development needs in all EU regions and cities, with a budget of € 351.8
billion – almost a third of the total EU budget. The ESIFs include the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF) for development and structural adjustments of regional economies,
economic change, enhanced competitiveness as well as territorial cooperation. The UIA initiative provides
urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address urban
challenges. The initiative has a total budget of €371 million for the period 2015 to 2020 .
3
2.4 The practices of green mobility

Best practice 1. I invite you to take a look at this interesting initiative to develop the diffusion of electric
mobility: the project “Elviten - Electrified L-category vehicles integrated into transport and electricity
networks”

The project aims to demonstrate how light electric vehicles (electric bicycles, electric scooters, tricycles
and electric cycle panels) can be successfully integrated into urban mobility, offering cost-effective
solutions for people, business or tourism, as well as for goods. The six European cities involved in the
demonstration phase (Bari, Genoa, Rome, Berlin, Malaga, Trikala) are each experimenting with a different
fleet of EL-Vs, to respond to specific mobility problems. Users in the pilot cities will be able to use Elviten
services through mobile and fixed device applications for booking charging points, managing electricity
roaming, booking sharing services, and using the electric vehicles provided for the project.

1 https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/themes/urban-development/network/#Relation
2 https://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/initiative/uia-european-context
3 https://www.uia-initiative.eu/en