Partners from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia met at the 1st Technical Expert workshop and the 2nd Steering Committee meeting of the CityWalk project – “Towards Energy Responsible Places: Establishing Walkable Cities In The Danube Region”. The meeting took place in Serbia between the 6th and 8th June 2017 and was hosted by two IPA co-funded partners – the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia and City of Valjevo.

Partners met on 7th June and started the day with the Technical Expert workshop. Hungarian urban development expert Béla Kézy presented walkability as an innovative urban development tool based on a new paradigm stating that the prime function of urban mobility is to move people and not cars as efficiently as possible.

Plamen Petrov Ph.D. from Varna Free University (Bulgaria) explained an architectural view point on walkability, saying: "Sustainable urban mobility planning is a multi-disciplinary effort in which architects have a key role along with the urban planners in shaping pedestrian friendly urban streetscapes and achieving the proper balance between various modes of transportation is important prerequisite".

Danko Ćosić from the Danube Competence Center attended the Transnational Expert workshop of the project CityWalk and presented the project Transdanube.Pearls. In the course of the Danube Transnational Program capitalization strategy, this provided the opportunity to create synergies in the field of sustainable mobility.

After the workshop the project partners walked to the Assembly of the City of Belgrade where Milutin Folić, director of Belgrade City Planning, presented their general urban plan for the city of Belgrade, making it more friendly for the pedestrians and bicyclists by de-sizing and reforming the number of car-lanes. The day continued with the 2nd Steering Committee meeting of the project CityWalk. Work package leaders presented the actual status of each work package and what are the next steps.

On 8th June project partners met in the City of Valjevo. The focus of the last day was on the project management issues, such as financial planning, budget modifications and mostly on reporting. The interactive workshop was lead by the lead partner of project CityWalk, Danilo Čeh from the Research center Bistra Ptuj (Slovenia). At the end the partners went for a walk around the Valjevo and closed the meeting with a good-bye lunch.

The 3rd steering committee meeting combined with the 2nd technical expert workshop and an transnational symposium of the project is planned for November 2017, when the Research center Bistra Ptuj will host all CityWalk project partners in Ptuj, Slovenia.