Sixteen cities across 12 countries are currently competing to be crowned as European Green Capital for 2023, and not for the first time Tallinn is in the mix.
Tallinn is persistent in the ambition to be crowned, and the city was a finalist for the accolade in 2022 alongside Dijon, Grenoble, and Turin, with Grenoble ultimately declared the winner. Previously, the Estonian capital had also been a finalist in 2019.
The 16 cities that are up for the award in 2023 are: Belgrade, Serbia; Cagliari, Italy; Dublin, Ireland; Gaziantep, Turkey; Gdańsk, Poland; Helsingborg, Sweden; İzmir, Turkey; Košice, Slovakia; Krakow, Poland; Logroño, Spain; Rzeszów, Poland; Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia; Sofia, Bulgaria; Tallinn, Estonia; Warsaw, Poland; and Zagreb, Croatia (see map below).
The Process
Since the start of February a panel of twelve independent experts have been conducting an assessment of each application, and they will create a shortlist of finalists, which is set to be announced later on in April. Their assessments are based on 12 separate environmental indicators including 'Climate Change Mitigation' and 'Nature and Biodervsity'.
The shortlisted cities will be invited to present to an international Jury, chaired by the European Commission. The EGCA 2023 finalist cities will each present an action plan on how their city intends to fulfil its European Green Capital year, projects / actions it intends to put in place to enhance the city's environmental sustainability, as well as a communications strategy.
The winner for 2023 will be announced at an awards ceremony later this year in Lahti, Finland, which is the European Green Capital for 2021, with the winning city receiving a prize of €600 000 to be used in projects / actions to enhance the city’s environmental sustainability and to achieve the city’s sustainability vision.
A bit of background
With more than two thirds of Europe’s population living in urban areas, the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf Awards aim to recognise the environmental achievements of cities and towns that strive for urban sustainability and eco-innovation, and inspire others to take positive action in making their cities fit for life.
More and more cities in Europe are choosing to go green. This is even more encouraging in the context of the European Green Deal roll out and recovery from the pandemic. European Green Capital and Green Leaf cities show that even in the most difficult circumstances, cities can become fit for life. This means more car-free zones, more public spaces for outdoor leisure activities, cycling paths and pedestrian zones, but also new, innovative urban solutions.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries
Winning the European Green Capital is a seal of approval by the European Commission and brings many benefits: increased international media coverage, a boost in local pride, a greater focus on environmental projects, and increased foreign investment. All finalist and winning cities also gain access to a network of previous finalists and winning cities where they share learnings on how to overcome key challenges.
Tallinn's persistence in applying and enthusiasm for the Green Capital project could be explained by the fact that the idea was originally conceived at a meeting in Tallinn, and is the result of an initiative taken by 15 European cities, which also included Riga and Vilnius, and the Association of Estonian Cities. The 'Tallinn Memorandum; was accepted by the European Commission and the award as officially launched in May 2008.
The sixteen competing cities are bidding to join the list, alongside the thirteen previous winners: Stockholm (2010), Hamburg (2011), Vitoria-Gasteiz (2012), Nantes (2013), Copenhagen (2014), Bristol (2015), Ljubljana (2016), Essen (2017), Nijmegen (2018), Oslo (2019), Lisbon (2020), Lahti (2021) and Grenoble (2022).
