Gain EU-wide recognition for your Workplace Mobility Plan! The Pan-European Workplace Travel Award is organised in a partnership between EPOMM, the European Platform on Mobility Management, and COMMERCE. It was designed to recognise efforts in implementing workplace mobility plans (or travel plans, depending on terminology).

more

The search has already begun to find the cities that will become the next European Green Capitals. The prestigious European Green Capital Award recognises cities that are at the forefront of environmentally-friendly urban living.

more

Despite the financial crisis and the budget cutbacks that many towns and cities in Europe are currently facing, there were 2,175 online registrations for EMW 2009 from some 39 countries, narrowly beating the record of 2,102 registrations previously set in 2008.

more

Together with the expansion of large shopping centres, new kinds of transportation problems have arisen. Overloaded parking lots and huge road traffic around main shopping areas are characteristic not only for large municipalities, but also for smaller towns. Having this in mind, members of Triste Condesa Housewives Association from the Spanish municipality of Arenas de San Pedro decided to take matters into their own hands and encourage other inhabitants of their city to do their shopping in a more eco-friendly way!

more

We are proud to announce that also this year, the European Mobility Week went beyond Europe’s borders! Take a look at what was going on in Japan between 16th and 22nd of September.

more

What’s the best possible way to show your personal commitment in the fight against climate change? Within the framework of this year’s European Mobility Week, over 1,000 cyclists from Budapest, Rome and Stockholm joined forces to provide you with a good answer. They sought to demonstrate that also YOUR voice may be heard while global leaders gathered in Copenhagen will be discussing further actions to curb the global warming!

more

Sundsvall-Östersund and Trondheim municipalities collaborate in three areas which may contribute to a positive development within the municipalities. Green Highway and the electric car project is one part in the effort to develop the infrastructure and valid communications.

A green transport axis along a renewable energy belt

Green Highway is a venture to create a green transport axis along a renewable energy belt, including investments in electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, renewable fuels, testing and development, as well as building up and spreading knowledge of this.

The concept

• Green Highway: Environmentally friendly development, innovation and tourism along a green axis between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Norwegian Sea
• Extensive development and implementation of environmentally friendly transport systems and solutions based on renewable energy from water, wind and biofuels in collaboration between public and private participants
• The great values of the scenic nature of the Green Highway-region gets a user friendly and sustainable packaging, also stimulating international tourism
• Considerable R&D (research and development) activities, industrial establishments and development of technology in the region connected to transport systems and energy production
• Green Highway creates changes others only talk about; through the SØT-collaboration, political commitment, extensive cooperation between public and private partners, and practical ability to take action
• A list of 100 points has been compiled, showing the process that is going on and the concrete initiatives and measures that have been carried out, are in progress, and are planned.

Fur information: www.greenhighway.nu

Latest press release from the European Coordination:
http://www.mobilityweek.eu/IMG/pdf_press_pack_emw_2009.pdf

Funding opportunities for small-scale projects is now available through a dedicated ‘CIVITAS Activity Fund’. The fund seeks to enable the exchange and/or transfer of experiences between CIVITAS Cities and other cities interested in CIVITAS’ integrated approach to sustainable mobility; the CIVITAS Initiative provides inspiration to cities and towns interested in achieving a more sustainable, clean and energy efficient urban transport system.

Under CIVITAS Activity Fund’s latest call, financing is available for the following type of activities:

• Preparatory and follow up activities e.g. studies, conferences, workshops and seminars
• Exchange staff activities e.g. exchange of expertise and knowledge between the staff of a hosting city (CIVITAS city) and that of an applying city (take-up city)

Deadline for applications: 11 September 2009

CIVITAS: www.civitas-initiative.org

For information please contact the administrator of the CIVITAS Activity Fund at:

ISIS - Istituto di Studi per l'Integrazione dei Sistemi
Ms Loredana MARMORA
Via Flaminia, 21
00196 Rome
ITALY
Phone: +39 06 321 26 55

lmarmora@isis-it.com

The European Coordination finalised the European Mobility Week Best practice guide during the summer. It gathers 10 best practice from all over Europe:

• Almada, Portugal (Joint runner-up for the EMW Award 2008)
• Bologna, Italy
• Budapest, Hungary (Winner of the EMW Award 2008)
• Galway City Council, Ireland
• Gavle, Sweden
• Krakow, Poland
• La Rochelle, France
• Murcia, Spain
• Sheffield, United Kingdom
• Zagreb, Croatia (Joint runner-up for the EMW Award 2008)

The Best Practice Guide is now available online at:
http://www.mobilityweek.eu/Participating-cities

The European Mobility Week Brief n°17 has been released. You can freely download it on the EMW Website at: http://www.mobilityweek.eu/IMG/pdf_brief_17_2009.pdf

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

News from the European Coordination

• Budapest wins European Mobiity Week Award 2008
• EMW 2009: Get started!
• Next European Coordination Meeting

News from the European Commission

• EMW Interactive Workshop 2009
• Welcome to the Green Week Conference

EMW Cities:

• Budapest
• Almada
• Zagreb
• Galway County Council
• La Rochelle
• Gavle
• Sheffield
• Bologna

Funding opportunities

• Intelligent Energy - Europe

Events

From 12 to 15 May, the European Coordination actively promoted the 2009 edition of European Mobility Week at Velo-City in Brussels - the biggest bi-annual cycling conference in the world - and at the European Conference on Mobility Management in San Sebastian. The stand in Brussels, which was integrated in the EC's Climate Action information stand, was visited by Transport Commissioner and Vice President Tajani and Brussels Transport Minister Pascal Smet. Both conferences attracted hundreds of transport professionals, politicians and city representatives from all over Europe, and therefore offered an ideal opportunity to spread the word about European Mobility Week.

The last publications of the European Coordination have been fully released:

• the European Charter to be signed by participating cities.
• the European Leaflet to promote the European Mobility Week all over Europe.
• the European Handbook to help cities organising the European Mobility Week at the local level.

Please feel free to download all these documents at: http://www.mobilityweek.eu/Participating-cities

The Spanish national coordination provides us with two interesting documents in English about the European Mobility Week in Spain:

• a summary of the final report of the European Mobility Week 2008,
• a best practice guide of the initiative in Spain in 2008.

Please feel free to use them as European examples for your national press and to keep them for inspiration for the 2009 EMW edition.

The Communications tools for the Mobility Week 2009 have been published in English and French.

A set of posters, logos, backgrounds and a communication toolbox are available to download. The focal theme, this year, "Improving City Climates" is largely present on the year tools. You can freely use them as part of the local communication in the participating local authorities.