News & events

The fifth EUI Peer Review Call, launched in October 2025 and closed on 18 November 2025, attracted strong interest from cities and urban practitioners across Europe. This round invited applications both from cities under review and from prospective peer reviewers, with the aim of shaping the Peer Review events scheduled for spring 2026. The assessment is now finished – and the results are exciting!

The city of Celje, tucked in the Savinja Valley in eastern Slovenia, has spent the past few years quietly reinventing itself. Like many small and mid-sized European cities, it faces demographic pressures, talent outmigration, housing challenges and an evolving economic landscape. But Celje is proving that with curiosity, openness and the right kind of support, even a relatively small city can shape its own future - and inspire others along the way.

From small towns to major cities, a growing number of urban areas are taking advantage of the exciting range of opportunities provided under EU Cohesion Policy. We explore how three cities have drawn on multiple strands of the European Urban Initiative (EUI) and related programmes, such as URBACT to support their sustainable urban development objectives, build their capacities and increase their European visibility.

Hands up if you’ve heard of Fuenlabrada. For those who haven’t, that might be about to change. That’s because this small city of 200,000 people located on the edge of metropolitan Madrid, seems to be everywhere these days. Whether through the EUI’s recent Policy Lab on Housing, its Innovative Actions programme, the City to City twinning mechanism or URBACT, Fuenla -as locals call it- is hard to miss.

On 3 December, the European Commission (EC) launched the EU Agenda for Cities, presenting its ambitious new framework to support cities in delivering Europe’s green, digital and social priorities. The Agenda recognises cities as key partners in designing and implementing EU policies, introducing a more integrated, simplified and structured approach to support them in the future. This has been the motto of the European Urban Initiative (EUI) since its establishment.

EUI has launched a new call for tenders to manage, facilitate and run the day-to-day operations of Portico, the EU’s urban knowledge platform. This is a unique opportunity to join us and help connect ideas, people and practices, supporting better urban futures across Europe.