Luxembourg is looking for urban farmers
A new pilot project in the capital will try out multi-faceted farming in a built-up setting as a source of food and environmental awareness
Breaking the rule could set you back some 30 euros
On the first day of July, the regulation banning the smoking of cigarettes on the beaches of Barcelona officially entered into force. This will apply all year round and not only during the tourist season, with a view to creating healthy, clean and more appealing public spaces on the Catalan capital’s coastal stretch. Infractions to the smoking ban will be sanctioned with up to 30 euros.
This makes Barcelona the first Spanish city to implement such a move. The prohibition on smoking, however, does already exist on hundreds of beaches across Spain after a national law allowed municipalities to implement such measures. In that respect, Barcelona will be fairly lenient to offenders, as other beaches have imposed much steeper penalties.
For example, people caught lighting up on three beaches on the island of Mallorca will have to fork out up to almost 2,000 euros. The beaches in question are Santa Ponsa, La Romana (Paguera) and Carregador (Palmanova).
A European directive from 2019 pointed out the problem with cigarette butts and their slow degradation, and that they are "the second most common plastic pollutant on beaches". It served as the basis for the Spanish law, which relegated the powers to impose bans and fines upon local authorities.
The beaches of Barcelona have a total length of about 5 kilometres and an area of 240,000 square meters. In the warm months of the year, they are visited by nearly 4 million people, of which families with children are nearly 10%.
In that view, the city authorities carried out a pilot test last year in order to study the effectiveness of a potential ban and the way it would be received among the general population.
The pilot test’s results showed a significant reduction in the percentage of people smoking on the beaches and the number of cigarette butts left on the sand. The initiative received a satisfactory score, more than 8 points out of 10, from the beaches’ users.
After the Berlin Constitutional Court declared the September 2021 local election invalid, the city is getting ready for a re-do
The digital transformation has reached the geographical dimension
The subsidy will apply to single women, couples and families
The digital transformation has reached the geographical dimension
Search for health, search for well-being - in any sense and category of these terms
The Agri-Tech centre in Osnabrück has a lab, workshop and test field all rolled into one
Eleven museums have united their efforts to do concrete analyses on emissions and share know-how on how to bring down emissions
It is meant as a response and companion piece to the annual San Remo festival - Italy’s premier pop music event
It’s the latest European capital that wants to do something about the rampant and chaotic use of the two-wheelers in its public spaces
Eleven museums have united their efforts to do concrete analyses on emissions and share know-how on how to bring down emissions
The city will kick off its stint as the European Capital of Culture for 2023 on 17 February
It is meant as a response and companion piece to the annual San Remo festival - Italy’s premier pop music event
The new itineraries are part of the DiscoverEU programme, which lets 18-year-olds travel by train between important European sites
The European Commission has published its first progress report charting the achievements of the socio-cultural movement that combines beauty, inclusion and sustainability
The 2023 edition of the creative initiative promises to be bigger, bolder and more inclusive
Veni Markovski’s take on dealing with disinformation in the European Union's poorest country – Bulgaria
A conversation with the mayor of Utrecht on the occasion of her mission to COP27
A conversation with the President of the European Committee of the Regions, about energy, climate change and the underrated importance of cohesion policy