Sharing ideas and successful cooperation within the Euregio Rhine-Waal - that was once again the focus this year when the mayors of the seven cities of the 100,000+city network of the Euregio Rhine-Waal, Nijmegen, Apeldoorn, Arnhem, Ede, Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Moers met at the Eurotec-Looop in Moers on Friday 17 January 2025. The focus of the talks this year was on a new sustainable neighbourhood development project. The directors discussed how best to work together to promote the success of climate-neutral and resilient design of city districts and neighbourhoods. Against the backdrop of the Paris climate agreement, which aims to prevent the average temperature from rising by more than 1.5 degrees, the respective creative ideas and approaches of all neighbourhood-level partners need to be considered in a cooperative manner.
New 100,000 plus.zero project for sustainable neighbourhood development
The 100,000 plus.zero project launched for this purpose is another important building block in the successful cross-border cooperation between the major Euroregional cities. Together with the six partners, the municipality of Ede, as lead partner, has secured an amount of around €50,000 from the INTERREG programme. As a result, solutions for sustainable neighbourhood development are being researched and developed from which the participating cities can benefit - and which can also serve as a model for smaller cities in the region.
The particular importance of this project could not be stressed enough by the mayors involved during the meeting.
Cities often enter uncharted territory when it comes to climate change adaptation and resilient urban development. Moreover, the impacts of climate change are currently a major challenge for municipalities ‘in their own right’ - as they are the driving force behind important transformation tasks in many areas. The entire thematic repertoire of adaptation to climate change impacts needs to be considered and addressed, from mobility, energy and construction to soil and agricultural transition.
The following executives participated in the annual conference. Pictured from left to right: Karsten Tückmantel (Düsseldorf), Andreas Kochs (Euregio Rhein-Waal), Ahmed Marcouch (Arnheim), Christoph Fleischhauer (Moers), Peter Messerschmidt (Apeldoorn), Martin Murrack (Duisburg), Helmut Hardt (StadtUmBau GmbH), Hubert Bruls (Nijmegen) und René Verhulst (Ede).
The 100,000+cities network works together on numerous topics in the Euregio Rhine-Waal on the basis of the 2017 Memorandum of Understanding.
Source: press release from the Stadt Moers
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
