The European Mobility Week Awards 2010

Date submitted: 5 March 2010

From 16 to 22 September 2009, a record 2,181 European towns and cities participated in the eighth annual edition of European Mobility Week (EMW) and invited their citizens to a wide range of activities promoting sustainable urban mobility. The theme was ‘Improving City Climates', which underlined the importance of local level efforts to tackle climate change and improve quality of life through the promotion of alternative transport modes such as cycling, walking, and public transport as well as clever car use schemes such car-sharing and car-pooling.

All participating local authorities complying with the criteria of the European Mobility Week Charter were invited to apply for the European Mobility Week Award 2009.

The European Mobility Week Award rewards those cities judged to have organised the most innovative EMW 2009 campaigns in terms of quality of activities linked to the annual theme and range of permanent measures implemented. The winning city will be chosen by an independent panel of transport experts who have assessed 29 applications and shortlisted 11 local authorities which they considered had performed outstandingly well during EMW 2009. Three 'best of the best' were then retained as finalists for the 2009 Award.

In their assessment, the jury members pay close attention to the involvement of stakeholders during the preparation and organisation of EMW, the integration of the focal theme within the campaign activities, and the comprehensiveness of the action plan regarding events, individual activities and implementation of permanent transport measures. The jury also considers the effort demonstrated by applicants in relation to their available budget. An overview of the key activities and achievements of each shortlisted city can be found on the following pages.

• Arenas de San Pedro (Spain)
• Bologna (Italy)
• City of London (UK)
• Gävle (Sweden) - FINALIST
• Hamburg (Germany)
• Ivanic-Grad (Croatia) - FINALIST
• Léon (Spain) - FINALIST
• Murcia (Spain)
• Östersund (Sweden)
• Panevėžys (Lithuania)
• Zagreb (Croatia)

The Award winner will be officially announced on 23 March 2010 by Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik at a ceremony at the Cinquantenaire Museum in Brussels.

Background information

European Mobility Week (EMW) is an initiative coordinated by the three European city networks, EUROCITIES, CLIMATE ALLIANCE and ENERGIE-CITÉS, with the support of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION (DG Environment). European Mobility Week started in 2002 and aims at encouraging citizens to change their travel behaviour and shift to more sustainable modes of transport. From 16 to 22 September, local authorities all over Europe and beyond organise activities and launch permanent measures which continue to exist after the Week is over. The 2009 campaign theme – “Improving City Climates” – underlined the importance of efforts of towns and cities in effectively tackling climate change via measures promoting sustainable mobility.

European Mobility Week website: www.mobilityweek.eu
European Info Point: Peter Staelens, + 32 2 552 08 66, peter.staelens@eurocities.eu
EMW Award Ceremony: Pamela Weir, + 32 2 299 33 20, pamela.weir@ec.europa.eu

More Information: www.mobilityweek.eu