From floods and heatwaves to terrorist attacks and pandemics - cities across Europe deal with a variety of different issues. Not least the war in Ukraine and the millions of refugees arriving overnight in EU cities have raised the challenges to a new level.
Against this backdrop, a group of mayors from major European cities such as Warsaw, Prague, Tallinn and Barcelona came together with members of the EUI/ STG faculty at the School's headquarters, Palazzo Buontalenti, to exchange about crisis management techniques and practices. The event, organised in collaboration with Eurocities, took place following the EUI’s State of the Union Conference. Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence and President of Eurocities, played a pivotal role in making this meeting possible.
"We mayors believe that our network could be a base for a new generation in democratic institutions. We now have many young members in our city council and in our cabinet, this is the new generation of European politicians," Nardella said. "(...) We are learning day by day, we have to use these crucial experiences to shape new cities and new democratic models at the local level."
During the meeting, EUI/STG professors Emma Lees, Andrea Renda, George Papaconstantinou and Andrew Geddes provided insights into the role of cities in green transformation, the use of technology, lessons learned from past crises as well as migration management. The mayors engaged in lively discussions on all topics, sharing experiences of dealing with these issues by their local administrations.
“The usefulness and utility of an exercise of this kind is as much about training as it is about peer learning, about discussions”, said STG Executive Director Fabrizio Tassinari in his concluding remarks. “I think to have a platform that facilitates this discussion on a regular basis, around some thematic areas is what we do at the School regularly, and we foresee that could be a very good way forward.”
The overall objective of the initiative is to enhance mayors' capacity to manage current and future crises, while increasing the resilience of public administration. On the basis of this exchange of ideas with European mayors, the STG aims to develop an advanced training programme for future leaders of green and smart cities.
Learn more about the STG Executive Training Hub.