Mayors of five central and Southern European cities met for an informal round table meeting in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana on Thursday (March 10) to discuss ongoing efforts in their respective municipalities towards achieving urban sustainability.
Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Jankovic hosted the event which was also attended by Mayor of Sofia, Bulgaria, Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Budapest Istvan Tarlos, Mayor of Istanbul Kadir Topbas, and Sinisa Mali, the Mayor of Belgrade. Violeta Bulc, the European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport, from Slovenia, and Erion Veliaj, the mayor of Tirana, Albania, also addressed the attendees.
Some scattered notes:
Topbas on the refugee and migrant crisis: “You must keep your doors open”
In one of the more interesting exchanges, Topbas, who has served as Istanbul’s mayor since 2004, strayed briefly from the main theme to address in broader terms Europe’s most recent response to the ongoing refugee crisis which has effectively sealed entry into the EU at the Greek-Macedonian border.
“You must keep your doors open,” Topbas said, speaking through an interpreter. “Refugees and migrants will always find a way. If one is closed, another will be opened. We have to solve this problem. If not, the planet will be facing even bigger problems.”
“It is the cities where most (migrant-related) problems arise,” he said, adding that Istanbul is hosting more than 500,000 of the estimated 2.7 million refugees that Turkey claims are now in the country.
Tarlos on the refugee and migrant crisis: “The question is about finding the right balance”
That later elicited a response from Tarlos, who in Budapest sides with nationalist and conservative elements aligned with Prime Minister Victor Orban’s efforts to keep refugees and migrants out of Hungary.
“The question is about finding the right balance,” said Tarlos, Budapest’s mayor since 2010, also speaking through an interpreter. “People want to seek a better life, I understand that. But if we allow this, then all people from Africa will want to leave.”
“In Europe we have a Christian obligation to help people, but these are (mostly) economic migrants,” he added. “The population of Europe will triple.”
EU Transport Commission Bulc on the Role of Cities in Achieving Environmental Sustainability
The round table was part a series of events held Thursday to celebrate Ljubljana’s designation as European Green Capital 2016, an honor Bulc addressed in her introductory remarks before handing over the stage to the mayors.
Bulc, an EU Commissioner since November 2014, insisted that “Mayors and cities really do matter” in the battle to achieve environmental sustainability and offered three key steps local authorities take.
“First, please continue to rethink mobility. The best way to really rethink and engage innovative powers is to look at the needs of people and businesses and follow and address genuine needs. Do not address the issues, but try to address the needs.
“I would like to give you support that you really (find) the courage for concrete initiatives to be deployed on the city level. Even though they may look a bit challenging at the beginning,” she said, “its important that (the initiatives) give cities back to the people and not to vehicles.
Her second point was to ensure that a variety of “shared zones” or “commonality solutions” be created. “Bring bike and pedestrian zones back. That lets life be really present in the cities.”
Her third suggestion was for local authorities to “invest in research and innovation. And to really put a special emphasis on smart mobility. For example, to really engage cooperation and collaboration with other smaller cities around you to be, because you are (bigger), to be an encouragement that smaller cities can make it as well.”
