Smart city projects share policy recommendations in Brussels


The European Lighthouse community currently consists of 14 projects that are driving the smart and sustainable city movement in Europe and beyond. In 40 Lighthouse- and 53 Fellow Cities, private and academic partners work on implementing innovative solutions in the fields of energy, ICT and mobility.

REPLICATE´S sister projects REMURBAN, TRIANGULUM and GrowSmarter collaboratively organized and carried out a successful event during the European Week of Regions and Cities. The three projects together hosted the session “From dream to reality: sharing experiences from leading European Smart Cities” at which more than 150 participants took part.

High level politicians from five of the Lighthouse Cities discussed what is needed on an EU level to facilitate successful replication in the future. The overall consensus of this panel was that European support is needed to help get local initiatives off the ground.

The coordinators of all three projects demonstrated their main achievements in the areas of energy, mobility and ICT and gave detailed insights on the daily work within the cities have been provided by overall six site managers from the various Lighthouse Cities of the three projects.

The discussed subjects covered various fileds. Giving Policy recommendations to the EU regarding Low Energy Districts, Sustainable Mobility and ICT and Phases and challenges of the urban transition were two of the main themes followed by topics like social and cultural barriers and opportunities. It was discussed, how to communicate the actions needed for a transition to smart sustainable cities in order to overcome the cultural and social obstacles, which are key messages, tools, channels and indicators and what role do the stakeholders (public administration, companies, academia and NGO) play.

Also legal and normative barriers was a discussion point about the right balance between transparency and efficiency. Finally, evalation and replication were targeted to present and upscaling of smart solutions regarding success factors of replication.

The joint policy paper and further details can be find here