17 partners from Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Austria, and Serbia have launched the CityWalk project – “Towards energy responsible places: Establishing walkable cities in the Danube Region”. The partnership is led by the Scientific Research Centre Bistra Ptuj from Slovenia. The financial support of 2,38 million € for cooperation on establishing walkable cities in the Danube Region was approved within the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme (co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and an Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance). 

The kick-off meeting of the CityWalk project took place from 7th – 8th February 2017 in Szeged, hosted by First Hungarian Responsible Innovation Association. Partners and participants were learning about good practices in improving walkability (presented by Petra Szűcs) and sustainable urban mobility actions in Szeged (presented by Dr. Gábor Dávid Kiss). Urban development expert Béla Kézy gave an inspiring presentation on the topic of walkability and how it can be used as innovative urban development tool. Hosting partner also organized a sightseeing walk in the city center of Szeged.

Ana Leganel, project officer from Joint Secretariat of Danube Transnational Programme, has shown her interest and the support of DTP by attending the CityWalk project kick-off meeting: »CityWalk is a very relevant project for the Danube Transnational Programme in terms of sustainable mobility in the Danube region. The fact that it is the only project approved in the first Call for Proposals tackling the first and most sustainable mode of transport, i.e. walking makes it even more relevant. Walking is beneficial on three different levels - cities, communities and individuals. Walking offers us more than we may realize at a first glance: we exercise and get in a better shape and mood, we have the possibility to fully enjoy the surroundings, we get in direct contact with nature and have a chance to interact with other people. Walking is environmentally-friendly and socially inclusive. Considering today’s heavy traffic and consequences thereof on the environment and the general wellbeing of people, CityWalk project is very much welcome and it will certainly bring a significant change in terms of transport safety but also in creating more livable cities. As the partners involved in this project represent small and medium size municipalities, we expect that the experiences and good practices to be established within the project will be transferred towards bigger cities as well in order to ensure a larger geographical scope of the project impact to the benefit of the inhabitants of the Danube region.«

Two more public events are planed in the projects duration time: Mid-term Symposium in Ptuj, Slovenia and Final event in Oradea, Romania. Partners will be working closely with local and transnational stakeholder groups to promote uptake of CityWalk outputs across Danube Region. Project outputs cover training courses, interactive workshops, a guidebook for designing walkability plans, local walkability plans, pilot actions, policy proposal package, etc.

Full press release is available here.