100 Resilient Cities and EU: Policy and Partnership Opportunities

• Develop relevant funding streams leveraging existing programs such as the Urban Innovation Actions (UIA), Horizon 2020, EU regional structural funds, and other similar instruments to advance across the EU and other regions of the world the delivery of holistic urban resilience.
• Create an EU-wide resilience challenge for cities, built on the learnings after the U.S. National Disaster Resilience Competition, given the EU’s established position in awarding project-based funds to source and implement innovative resilience initiatives (Example: U.S.-based Rebuild By Design model employed after Hurricane Sandy in the New York Metropolitan Region with dedicating funding from the European Commission).
• Create EU-led financial incentives for cities throughout Europe to hire Chief Resilience Officers (CROs), modeled after the 100RC Network, while working together to identify financing solutions for the implementation and delivery of large-scale city resilience projects.
• Leverage the 100RC Network to identify opportunities between EU cities, with cities across the world trying to advance the Strategic Approach to Resilience in the EU’s External Action and the 12 EU Urban Agenda priority areas: integration of migrants & refugees, climate adaption, energy transition, urban mobility, digital transition, etc.
• Create a senior EU position focused on urban resilience, such as an EU Chief Resilience Officer as top advisor or identify “Urban Resilience” as a portfolio under an EU Commissioner.
• Dedicate a pillar of the European Commission’s CITIES Forum to urban resilience and co-host an annual EU Urban Resilience Forum held jointly by 100RC and the European Commission to showcase the impact of urban resilience in Europe and how this is linked to the goals of the EU Urban Agenda.
• Form a partnership on the exchange of data, research, and learning between 100RC and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy as well as the European Political Strategy Centre to help advance this new practice led by cities in Europe.

Along with emphasizing cities as critical stakeholders, the urban resilience model provides the EU with the kind of process it now needs for new and deeply entrenched challenges, such as failing and stagnant economies; civic erosion caused by social division and inequality; diminishing financial resources; the effects of mass migration; the continuing effects of global warming; and the uncertainties caused by Brexit. Central to resilience is strength and adaptability required for a city and region to succeed and grow amid the complexities of the 21st Century.