Key takeaways from the EU Week of Regions and Cities 2025
#EWRC2025 Atlantic Cities was glad to participate in the 23rd edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities, that took place on 13-15 October 2025 in Brussels.
Strengthening Governance Across the Atlantic Region
On Monday, GRAAL – Governance and Regional Atlantic Area Lighthouse, an Interreg Atlantic Area project, was presented, showcasing how European cooperation drives regional development and innovation.
GRAAL aims to enhance multi-level and multi-stakeholder governance by capitalising on the results of past and current EU-funded projects — with a special focus on five key areas: marine energies, ocean pollution, climate and risks, nature protection and sustainable tourism. GRAAL is a strategic project of INTERREG AA, meant to capitalise on past projects and improve the impact of the programme.
Inviting river and ocean sustainability to the EU Week of Regions and Cities
With this year’s EU Week of the Regions & Cities and Ocean Week taking place at the same time (week starting Monday 13 October), Brussels offered an unique opportunity for shedding light on the roles and responsibilities cities have in the protection and sustainable use of our rivers and ocean.
On Wednesday, we participated in an workshop organised by the EU4Ocean coalition (ACTeon environment) to analyse challenges and discuss solutions on how to boost the EU Ocean Pact from a local perspective.
Workshop: Engaging cities in ocean and river sustainability
Speakers shared good practices from European cities and organisations.
Jan-Bart Calewaert, Managing Director of Seascape Belgium and Advisor of the Decade Coordination Office for Ocean Data Sharing, spoke about what cities can do: extend nature-based solutions, work on a integrated river-coast-city strategy, towards an integrated marine and land-based planning, support research and innovation on novel approaches to understand drivers, pressures and cumulative impacts and provide a better response, and promote citizen engagement and education through blue schools and citizen science.
Two questions were asked during the interactive question: Which (additional) actions can cities take for river and ocean sustainability? And which bottlenecks cities might face when implementing such actions? Under which conditions (knowledge, regulation, governance, capacity, financing…) will cities contribute effectively to the delivery of the European Ocean Pact ambitions? (considering both policy development and policy implementation) And which opportunities to seize beyond the European Ocean Pact (instruments) to support cities’ engagement?
Participants were split into groups to address and discuss different areas for cities’ engagement:
- Reducing pollution from multiple sources
- Aquatic ecosystem restoration & Nature-based solutions
- Citizens’ engagement, education & knowledge sharing
- Sustainable (blue) economic sectors
- City’s governance, strategies and financing instruments
- Urban planning & coastal resilience
- Waste management & circular economy
Atlantic Cities facilitated the discussion of the latter, where a few participants brainstormed ideas such as changing public procurement rules to promote the use of sustainable materials, banning unnecessary single-use plastics, making use of “ballast” materials that enter a city through ships (used to weighting the ships and then discarded). For instance, stones from Norway have been used to strengthen the dikes in Amsterdam (Regina Klinger – TU Delft).
In this regard, the #MakeEUBlue campaign has created a portfolio of actions cities can take to support river and ocean sustainability.
Shaping the next EU Budget with Cities
Held in the European Parliament through the European Urban Forum, it brought MEPs, Mayors, and EU decision-makers together to call for a budget that strengthens territorial cohesion, embeds multilevel governance, and guarantees that EU investments reflect local needs and capacities.
The future of Cohesion Policy
The European Committee of the Regions urged the European Parliament and Member States to join its call on the European Commission to revise its Multiannual Financial Framework (FFF) proposal, presented on 16 July 2025. If accepted, the new EU long-term budget after 2027 would merge Cohesion Policy and agricultural policy under a single, large fund, putting them in competition.
