Transatlantic Cooperation: Working Together for Sustainable Urban Development

As one of five cities in the EU that have been paired with cities in the U.S., Varna, Bulgaria (pictured above) will be working together with Santa Monica, California over the next 18 months on issues of mobility.

Increasing urbanization has been one of the defining global trends of the last century. More people, more economic growth, more cultural exchange, more carbon emissions, more opportunities, and more challenges are all part of the dynamics of urbanization. How can we work together across borders to make the most of these opportunities and address these challenges in a way that will ensure that our citizens live in sustainable urban environments?

This question is at the heart of the European Union’s International Urban Cooperation (IUC) initiative, funded by the Partnership Instrument. Here in the United States, the IUC program is supporting engagement between cities in the EU and US to be able to work together, share experiences, and exchange knowledge on a whole host of issues that affect urban citizens — housing, mobility, the environment, climate action, the circular economy, and equitable economic growth just to name a few.

This week, we’re announcing 5 new EU-US city pairings that have been selected through a competitive process. These cities will collaborate with one another over the coming 18 months. They follow in the footsteps of a great collaboration between Austin, Texas and Bologna, Italy which has been ongoing since December 2017. The new pairings are:

New York, New York ← → Barcelona, Spain

Boston, Massachusetts ← → Lyon, France

Baltimore, Maryland ← → Turin, Italy

Santa Monica, California ← → Varna, Bulgaria

Fort Collins, Colorado ← → Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal

Over the course of the next 18 months, we’ll be periodically posting stories from EU and US participants in these city pairings to share the issues facing their communities and their experiences participating in IUC exchanges.

We hope that you will join us and follow along as these pairings become examples of the benefits of concrete cooperation between the European Union and the United States — cooperation which is needed now more than ever.

Read the press release and visit the IUC website to learn more.