In 2019, ICLEI Member Umeå (Sweden) hosted the first Social Progress Cities Summit. As part of the Summit, participating cities came together to call for a European Capital of Social Progress Award, a call that ICLEI Europe is proud to officially support.

This award would be similar to those already given out by the European Commission, such as the European Green Capital, European Capital of Smart Tourism, or European Capital of Innovation awards. In this case, the Capital of Social Progress would recognise a city that is a social progress role model by, for example, having implemented successful policies addressing social justice, spatial segregation, inequality, polarisation, integration, intergenerational issues, or by having implemented innovative and enterprising solutions that improved the quality of urban living environment.

Cities tend to be progressive and innovative, with urban centres often being leaders with respect to embracing residents of all ages, abilities, backgrounds, origins and lifestyles. At the Social Progress Cities Summit, ten cities from ten different countries came together to sign a Declaration, which is now available for any municipality or organisation to sign, calling for the European Commission to acknowledge leading cities in this area. The Declaration asserts that acknowledging these leaders will enable other cities from across Europe to learn from their example, motivating all to be more socially progressive.

Wolfgang Teuber, Regional Director of ICLEI Europe has signed the Declaration on behalf of ICLEI’s European Secretariat. Other signatories include ICLEI Members Leuven (Belgium), Nicosia (Cyprus), Ljubljana (Slovenia), and Umeå (Sweden).

For more information and to add your municipality to the call, click here.