Mayor of Chisinau Ion Ceban and deputy mayor Ilie Ceban are taking part in the second global meeting of the “Partnerships for Sustainable Cities” Program in Barcelona, which gathers together representatives from over 100 cities and municipalities. The meeting is held at an important moment as for many of the 57 partnerships between cities, 2024 will be the last year of implementation, noted Ion Ceban.

According to the mayor, the meeting in Barcelona is a good opportunity for cities to take stock of the results of partnerships and come up with recommendations on the sustainability and continuity of these programs, taking into account important recent changes in the EU development policy, such as “geographing” of EU aid and launching of the Global Gateway Initiative. The second global meeting is also a great occasion for celebrating the achievements of decentralized cooperation partnerships and of charting a course towards a more sustainable future for cities.

“Partnerships for Sustainable Cities” is an innovative EU-funded program established in 2018 to foster peer-to-peer exchanges between EU local authorities and partner countries around common challenges. Participating municipalities can set their own priorities within a broad set of themes, i.e. urban governance. A number of meetings were planned to be held during the visit, IPN reports.