Today METREX – the network of European metropolitan regions and areas – launched its ‘Manifesto for Metropolitan Partnerships: accelerating on a greener, more just and competitive Europe’ at the European Parliament. MEPs Jan Olbrycht, Marcos Ros and Andrey Novakov spoke at the launch event alongside deputy mayors from Bucharest, The Hague, Wroclaw and Milan.
Metropolitan regions and areas are the source of 70% of EU GDP and 70% of EU greenhouse emissions, and home to 60% of EU inhabitants. Indispensable to achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals and overcoming Europe’s urban and rural challenges, the vast potential of Metropolitan regions and areas remains untapped. With the Manifesto for Metropolitan Partnerships, METREX is calling on EU legislators to forge Metropolitan Partnerships for a more resilient, just, greener, and better-connected Europe.
Encompassing urban, rural and suburban dimensions, metropolitan regions and areas offer a ready-made goldmine of expertise and opportunities to solve the current and future challenges facing Europe through viable solutions. To enable Europe to drill into this potential METREX, the representative body of over 50 regions and areas across 17 countries, has identified a 7-point plan that calls on the EU for:
1. A formal role for Metropolitan Partnerships within the Commission’s existing programmes and initiatives.
2. A new and dedicated Metropolitan Programme 2050 in the EU multi-annual financial framework (MFF).
3. The Metropolitan Partnerships to be obligatory stakeholders in processes regulated by the EU code of conduct on partnerships.
4. An EU Commissioner that has the “Metropolitan Dimension” in their portfolio.
5. Transforming the Committee of the Regions into the Committee of the Regions and Metropolitan Areas.
6. The big EU infrastructural policies such as Horizon Europe to be further shaped to strengthen Europe’s metropolitan dimension.
7. Greater emphasis on physical metropolitan links across Europe to connect communities and markets.
Jan Olbrycht MEP, president of the European Parliament Urban Intergroup, said: “METREX deserves support and recognition in their fight to strengthen the role of metropolitan regions in Europe”.
Jakub Mazur, president of METREX and first deputy mayor of Wrocław stressed that: “A resilient, sustainable and prosperous Europe is within touching distance. We are calling on Brussels to channel the expertise and experience of 60% of EU inhabitants into Metropolitan Partnerships so together, we can tackle Europe’s challenges and accelerate progress”.
ENDS
Download the Manifesto
Down a PDF of the Manifesto for Metropolitan Partnerships.
About METREX
METREX, the Network of European Metropolitan Regions and Areas, represents over 50 metropolitan regions and areas across Europe, facilitating the exchange of knowledge, expertise and experience. A non-profit network bringing together rural and urban areas and collaborating with European institutions, research and governmental organisations, METREX strives to achieve a more productive, healthy, inclusive, and sustainable future by delivering concrete solutions to Europe’s challenges.
METREX website
Press Contact
Stephen Gallagher, Head of Secretariat, stephen.gallagher@eurometrex.org, +44 7840 436844.
