Belgium will host Europe’s biggest sportainment park
The facility will be located in Hasselt and is set to welcome its first visitors this spring
An interview with Thomas Kastrup-Larsen, the Mayor of Aalborg in Denmark
Thomas Kastrup-Larsen has a master’s degree in public administration from Aalborg University. In 1998, he became a member of the City Council and worked as a Councillor of health and Sustainable Development for the Social Democrats from 2007 to 2013. In 2014, he assumed office and became the Mayor of Aalborg.
In 2019, he spoke to TheMayor.EU and discussed the municipality, its projects, and sustainability goals. Moreover, he shared various achievements and good practices from Aalborg. The full interview can be read on our website.
Now, the Mayor has shared the struggles and successes of Aalborg throughout the past year, since the outbreak of the pandemic.
We have been seriously affected but maybe not as much as other regions in Europe. Our unemployment rate is, of January 2021, 17% higher than at the beginning of 2020. This is around 1000 more unemployed this year compared to last year, but this is lower rise than in the rest of Denmark.
The building and construction sector has been doing very well during the crisis and many companies are running as usual and have even expanded their business. But especially the retail and restaurant sectors have been severely affected.
There has been a challenge for the graduates to find jobs. A large part of the unemployed are graduates. One initiative that has been made to address this is a 4-week internship – where businesses in the whole municipality are encouraged to take an intern. This was a success in the 2nd half of 2020.
It has also been a challenge to find internships for skilled workers and students – but in close cooperation between companies and the technical schools, solutions have been found.
We have followed the national advice and regulations – and recommend working from home if at all possible. Furthermore, we have been in dialogue with local communities with various ethnic backgrounds to ensure translation of guidelines as well and having moveable test facilities in order to get out to all communities.
The citizens, in general, follow the guidelines from the government – so there has been no need for extra national actions.
The government distributed “Re-start” funds to be given to the branches in need – the local shops and restaurants. These funds are aimed at attracting people to the shops and restaurants again in a safe way. The exact use is being planned in the near future.
In addition to this, our business development strategy will focus on assisting our SMEs in internationalization, digitalization and the green transition – since this is the way forward and out of the crisis.
The close cooperation with the knowledge institutions on getting the graduates into employment will continue and will have increased focus on the rest of 2021.
It has been a challenge to balance our efforts in helping our SMEs – on the one hand mobilizing the workforce in the branches that have been busy during corona vs assisting the branches that have suffered. This has been a balance that we are still trying to address.
Citing concerns about humaneness, the legislation aims to discourage the proliferation of the so-called designer pet breeds
Naturally, many aren’t happy - not because of the reduced possibility for prayers, but because they felt it was an attack on welfare
The facility will be located in Hasselt and is set to welcome its first visitors this spring
Some autonomous shuttles in France are now doing their rounds without a human supervisor inside
Europe is striving to cut the costs of operating wind turbines on water
38,000 of these fellas help to purify the city air, so why not become friends with them?
2020 and 2021 were zero years for these types of events, but the break has not diminished its reputation
As Europe strives to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, Turku and Dijon are among a group of cities seeking to reach this goal two decades earlier
Some autonomous shuttles in France are now doing their rounds without a human supervisor inside
2020 and 2021 were zero years for these types of events, but the break has not diminished its reputation
Citing concerns about humaneness, the legislation aims to discourage the proliferation of the so-called designer pet breeds
The facility will be located in Hasselt and is set to welcome its first visitors this spring
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
This initiative seeks to integrate the values of the New European Bauhaus into the European Commission’s 100 Cities Mission
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