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EC accepts Arad candidacy for “European Green Capital Award” in 2018
The European Commission approved the candidacy of Arad for the title “European Green Capital” in 2018 and announced the list of the 7 towns whose candidacies have been accepted.
The 7 towns are Arad (Romania), Ghent (Belgium), Nijmegen (Holland), S-Hertogenbosch (Holland), Tallinn (Estonia), Umea (Sweden) and Warsaw (Poland).
The files will be evaluated by a commission of experts until March 2016 and in June they will announce the winner for 2018, during a ceremony held in Ljubljana.
The selection of candidates for 2018 will be made by evaluating indicators from 12 domains: climate changes - attenuation and adaptation; local transport; green urban areas; nature and biodiversity; ambient air quality; quality of acoustic environment; waste production and management; water management; waste water treatment; ecological innovation and durable labour force occupation; energy performances and integrated environment management.
The town of Arad launched in October its candidacy for the European Green Capital Award. The event took place during the Ecomediu Fair, where local officials presented the project and advantages the town has in competition and showed the candidacy was part of the town’s environment investment strategy and improving quality of life in the next years.
A “green” project announced for the town is a plant producing electricity and thermal energy based on biomass. The investment is part of a program for the rehabilitation of the transport network and thermal energy distribution of 9.3 million euros.
The local administration showed that Arad has a major advantage with the largest bike track in Romania of 135 km, to be inaugurated at the end of the year after investments of over 7 million euros.
The European Green Capital Award is granted every year by the European Commission to towns whose urban activities have the lowest impact on the environment.
The competition is addressed to towns with more than 100,000 inhabitants and was initiated in 2006 at an international reunion held in Tallinn, Estonia, when 15 European towns signed a memorandum.
The initiative was taken over and launched by the European Commission in 2008.