The "Funchal Statement" was issued yesterday at the CIVITAS Forum in Funchal, Portugal. More than 200 European cities reaffirmed their original CIVITAS commitments to sustainable urban transport systems and publicly raised their emission reduction targets. Cities called for EU leaders to commit to long-term EU funding to help them realise their goals.
CIVITAS is an EU initiative to promote cleaner, better, more sustainable and energy efficient urban transport strategies.
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STATEMENT BY Bruno Miguel Camacho Pereira, newly elected Chair of the CIVITAS Political Advisory Committee and Deputy Mayor of Funchal. "The release today of the Funchal Statement is a significant milestone. More than 200 cities have come together to promise we will maintain policies and implement measures to make municipal transportation more sustainable. And through the statement, we hope to convince the European Union of the need for funding to help guide city-based approaches for sustainable mobility. Without long-term EU support, cities will not have long-term success in the field of sustainable mobility." "Before an audience of some 350 city and EU-level leaders, and a host of urban mobility experts, today we announced the details of the Funchal Statement. It's a call for assistance from the EU to keep integrated urban transport strategies on the short term agendas of our cities." |
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STATEMENT BY Felix Leinemann, Member of the cabinet of Siim Kallas, EC Vice-President, Commissioner for Mobility and Transport "The European Commission knows that co-ordinated EU-level funding is an important element for success at the city level. The Funchal Statement is an impressive indication of the power of what can happen when cities come together on important issues such as the future of sustainable urban mobility. We know that four out of five Europeans live in towns and cities, and the Commission is listening." |
Notes:
- CIVITAS (City-VITAlity-Sustainability) is an EU initiative designed to support cleaner and better transport in cities. Launched in 2002, it facilitates the sharing of best practice and receives European Commission funding for collaborative transnational projects.
- The CIVITAS Forum Conference is an annual gathering for the exchange of views between politicians and urban transport experts. The 2011 conference was the 9th edition of the conference. Previous meetings have been held in Bologna, Kaunas, Burgos, Nantes, Rotterdam, Graz, Krakow and Malmö.
For more information about the Forum, please contact:
CIVITAS Secretariat
secretariat@civitas.eu
or visit the CIVITAS website: www.civitas-initiative.eu
For further information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Valentina Pavarotti
vpa@mostra.com
+32 2 533 95 64.