Portal de Murcia
www.portaldemurcia.com
The Councilor for Urban Agenda and Open Government, Mercedes Bernabé, participated this morning in the conference on Governance and Citizen Participation, organized by the Directorate General of Urban Regional Policy (DR Regio) of the European Commission.
This is the body responsible for European Union policy on regions and cities, whose objective is to support job creation, business competitiveness, economic growth, sustainable development and the improvement of the quality of life of citizens.
One of the main investment lines of regional policy is the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), of which Murcia is a beneficiary with the more than 25 million euros received for the implementation of its DUSI Strategy and Smart City.
Likewise, together with these, the town hall also benefits from European financing in the framework of territorial cooperation through projects such as Urbact Urbelac or IUC.
Mercedes Bernabé highlights the importance of having been invited to this event, “as this type of forums allows us to know first hand and be present in the design of investment priorities for the next 2021-2027 financing period in which we are already working within the framework of the Murcia 2030 Urban Agenda â€.
The conference was attended by personalities such as Dubravka © uica, Vice President of the European Commission, Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms of the European Commission, Luca Jahier, President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the Committee of the Regions, in addition to other relevant positions from the European institutions.
The councilor points out that “as a common point, the need for European citizens to play a leading and active role in building the future of our union has been highlighted, for which it is essential to encourage citizen participation in public decision-making from at the local level â€.
The debate also focused on how to ensure closer cooperation with citizens and civil society in the governance and implementation of cohesion policy and management of specific EU funds.
In this sense, Mercedes Bernabé states that "Murcia has been invited to participate in this conference with its project for the revitalization of neighborhoods, urban DNA, one of the ten programs included in the Strategy of City Murcia 2020".
The participatory processes developed in the neighborhoods of El Carmen and La Paz, within the framework of ADN Urbano, are included in the DUSI Strategy, financed by the ERDF 2014-2020.
"With this initiative, Murcia has pioneered citizen involvement in decision-making and in the management of specific EU funds," explains the mayor.
Urban DNA has previously been recognized as a good practice at European level when it obtained the Tallin Good Practice Label in 2017.
After receiving the award, the initiative has been awarded in various European fields and included in numerous publications as good practice, even reaching the semifinal of the prestigious awards given by Bloomberg Philantropies based in New York.
Work meetings
The Councilor for Urban Agenda and Open Government, Mercedes Bernabé, has taken advantage of her stay in Brussels to hold various work meetings in members of the European institution.
In this way, the mayor has held a meeting with the Committee of the Regions in order to jointly analyze Murcia's participation in European partnerships formed by leading cities in the implementation of their respective national urban agendas.
"Murcia, as a national pilot experience, is designing its roadmap to publicize the main milestones of our Urban Agenda within the European Union," explains Bernabé.
The councilor has also met with the Office of the Region of Murcia in Brussels to establish synergies and join efforts around the achievement of European funding through the management of joint projects.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Murcia / Foto: archivo
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