TheMayor.EU logo 
The French-Irish infrastructure will transfer sustainable nuclear and wind energy between the two countries, strengthening their energy independence
Do you think your city has what it takes?
City officials believe that financial conditions will deteriorate in the coming winter months
The Latvian capital joins a growing rank of European cities that have turned to taxing the visitors’ impact
The EDMO hubs work to connect fact-checkers, academia and the media, as well as boost local media literacy
Ireland is currently going through a major rental housing crisis
The Estonian city is preparing for its upcoming European Green Capital year in style
The birds will be specially trained to scare off pigeons from their favourite places in the city’s parks
The system uses a simple tri-colour traffic light code to let commuters know the best place to enter a train
The smart devices also let drivers with reduced mobility know where the nearest free spot is located
Plants feed on CO2 and plenty of it is produced at the local Tekniska verken energy company, so there’s a circular win-win solution
The city’s Second District opted for sustainable Christmas decoration this year
The city marked the 250th e-taxi license, issued by local traffic authorities
The city will limit the number of these two-wheelers in the centre to 500, in order to push companies to service residential areas as well
The system uses a simple tri-colour traffic light code to let commuters know the best place to enter a train
The smart devices also let drivers with reduced mobility know where the nearest free spot is located
City officials believe that financial conditions will deteriorate in the coming winter months
Some shops have stayed open for more than six generations of the same family and trace their origins to the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Faux or fact? Now, it’s up to you to shine the light on the truth
Local authorities want to monitor the situation and keep a healthy housing balance
Ireland is currently going through a major rental housing crisis
It will aid them in collecting data about the incidents that can be used in court
Detail of the municipal building in Bucharest, Source: Neoclassicism Enthusiast on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Considering Bucharest's razor-thin budget margins, the mayor explained that without a subsidy, 2022 will be a year of cut spending after years of austerity
During the weekend, Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan met with officials from the national government to discuss a possible subsidy for heating in the city. Today, in an attempt to balance the local budget, he proposed a massive 70% increase in consumer prices to cover the rising cost of heat production.
Currently, the local government covers around two thirds of consumer heating costs, and despite rising prices, Mayor Dan aims to keep that ratio.
In a press conference after Saturday’s meeting with the government, the mayor explained that consumer prices need to go up, as production prices have doubled. At the same time, if the government does not do anything to help the local budget, Bucharest will have a difficult time fulfilling its financial obligations.
According to Nicusor Dan, currently, the city’s budget margins are razor-thin and there is no surplus. If the government does not step in, in his opinion, local authorities will be forced to institute further austerity measures by postponing major development works, debt payments and by avoiding expenses on, as he put it, ‘nonsense, concerts, fairs and other things’.
Currently, there are over 500,000 apartments in the Romanian capital, which are connected to the central heating system or roughly 70% of the overall housing stock. The price of heating is measured in gigacalories. One gigacalory is roughly the equivalent of energy needed to heat one room per month during the winter.
The price of a gigacalory right now is around 33 euros. In the mayor’s proposition, that number would increase to 56 euros. For comparison, the production and distribution prices have also seen a major increase from around 100 euros per gigacalory to around 200.
The difference between consumer and production prices in Bucharest is covered by the local government’s budget, thus, the increase would put a major hole in city officials’ plans for 2022.
During Mayor Dan’s meeting with government officials, after he petitioned for aid for the gigacalory situation, he also raised the question of Bucharest’s overall budget. According to him, the capital city has been operating in an emergency austerity mode for years now and it needs additional funds to do big infrastructure projects.
One such project is the modernisation of the district heating system. The city has managed to update just over 10% of the distribution infrastructure. According to ELCEN, the local heating company, the registered losses in 2020 were more than 2 million litres per hour. Furthermore, last year, many buildings were left without hot water due to system failures.
According to AGERPRESS news agency, the government is currently looking to revise municipal budgets across the board. For this purpose, it has commissioned a 600,000-euro feasibility study to determine the best course of action. At the same time, the Minister of Finance Adrian Câciu, who stepped into office last Thursday, had a lukewarm response to the subsidy proposition.
The local authorities are taking the bold step as a way to declutter the urban streets from delivery traffic
One-third of homes on the islands this year were sold to nationals of other countries, many of whom are non-residents
This was one of the more creative and unusual ideas set to take shape as a result of the second participatory budget initiative in the city
Users can now get an overview of the state of the output in the country and receive a warning to reduce consumption and avoid power cuts
The city will launch an urban walk with a digital visual guide
The system uses a simple tri-colour traffic light code to let commuters know the best place to enter a train
The city inaugurated twelve of these spots to encourage people to still feel at home while on the street
The Danish capital was recognized for its citizen-centric approach to urban planning
The pioneering green move would make the country the first in Europe to do so
The city inaugurated twelve of these spots to encourage people to still feel at home while on the street
This was one of the more creative and unusual ideas set to take shape as a result of the second participatory budget initiative in the city
The city will launch an urban walk with a digital visual guide
This initiative seeks to integrate the values of the New European Bauhaus into the European Commission’s 100 Cities Mission
These will be spread across 11 EU countries and will serve to support the EU Missions
The European Commission has accepted to develop the idea
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
