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NEW EUROPE CITY MAKERS SUMMIT In February, European City Makers met in Amsterdam for a pre-Summit, preparing for a massive meeting in May 2016. This New Europe City Makers Summit was the most important moment for City Makers from all over Europe. Seven hundred City Makers, from 150 cities all over The Netherlands and Europe, came to Amsterdam for four days. The world is changing rapidly and even more so in its big cities. Universal problems concerning affordable housing, climate change, poverty, healthcare, food and energy manifest themselves more prominent and urgent in our exponentially growing cities. At the same time, this is where bottom up solutions are being created and executed - by so called City Makers.
New Europe magazine The summit officially took off with the launch of the first New Europe magazine. This edition contained articles written by City Makers from all over Europe. One of the articles called upon the ministers responsible for the Urban Agenda for the EU to add the so-called (Im)Pact of Amsterdam, initiated by the City Makers network, to their Pact of Amsterdam.
The City Makers movement started in 2012 as an initiative of Pakhuis de Zwijger from Amsterdam with the first City Embassy in Berlin. It was the start of a European platform called New Europe, now consisting of 28 city embassies in all of the capitals of the EU-member states, representing hundreds of City Makers improving their cities by the power of bottom-up initiatives. The movement actively links City Makers to the universal contemporary problems and connects them to governments on all levels in order to collaborate on creating the cities of the future: sustainable, self-sufficient, healthy, inclusive, save and clean.
The first copy of the magazine was handed over to Bert Koenders, minister of Foreign Affairs, and Nicolaas Beets, Special Envoy for the European Urban Agenda. Following, minister Koenders gave an inspiring speech, praising the power of the City Makers and calling them indispensable for Europe’s future. Subsequently, several City Makers took the stage to talk about their initiatives at home.
The first day of the City Makers Summit was all about meeting each other, the second about getting connected, the third day was about learning from each other and the final day was about taking action.
City expeditions On the second day, the most inspiring projects of eight Dutch cities were visited. Every city expedition had its own theme, from co-creation, transformation, creative industry to design and technology. Stories about design and architecture were told in Maastricht and Zaanstad. Talks about co-creation and democracy took
place in Zwolle. Social cohesion was the topic of discussion in Lelystad. In The Hague, the focus was on greening the city. In Eindhoven, numerous upcoming incubators were visited. In Rotterdam the programme was curated by the re:Kreators network. Finally, the expedition in Utrecht went to the Campus Party and Vechtclub XL. Prominent participant on the last two mentioned expeditions was Markku Markkula, the President of the Committee of the Regions. Cycling across Amsterdam On day 3, the City Makers cycled across Amsterdam to visit its most inspiring examples of social innovation and the thriving forces behind it. Simultaneously, the programme ‘We Make Europe: Cities and City Makers enhancing the (Im)Pact of Amsterdam’ was held at FabCity. A co-production of URBACT, Eutropian, Agora Europe, Pakhuis de Zwijger, the Committee of the Regions, ECF and EUROCITIES, to discuss the ‘Urban Agenda for the EU’. This agenda argues that the EU should do more to support European cities by working on better regulation, workable financial instruments and knowledge exchange between cities. The aim of this session was to connect the City Makers Movement to the Urban Agenda for the EU. Action The following day, New Europe project leader, Charlot Schans, and deputy mayor of Athens, Amalia Zepou, presented the City Makers Agenda at the informal minister meeting on the
Urban Agenda for the EU, with a call for action. Parallel to this meeting, hundreds of City Makers gathered at The Wall and in Pakhuis de Zwijger to meet, talk and make new connections. Later that day, exiting news reached the City Makers; the ‘Urban Agenda for the EU’ was adopted and the contribution of the City Makers Movement would be attached as an annex. A great result. The Call The City Makers Call for Social Innovation and Collaborative City-Making, which should lead to actual measures in 2018, stated the following: ‘The complex challenges of our time demand innovative solutions and above all, a new way of working. Urgent matters like climate change, increasing poverty and inequality, housing or food supply demand an approach characterised by experiments and integrated collaboration, rooted in ownership and participation of the city’s users. City Makers are the pioneers exploring, shaping and defining this new way of working.’ The European government was asked, among a list of other demands, to acknowledge the vital role of City Makers in sparking social innovation, to co-create the city with a multiplicity of stakeholders and to re-design democracy for more direct, inclusive and tailormade decision-making.
DAY 1 - WE MEET
PAKHUIS DE ZWIJGER - AMSTERDAM
DAY 2 - WE CONNECT
EINDHOVEN - LELYSTAD - ROTTERDAM - DEN HAAG
ZWOLLE - UTRECHT - ZAANSTAD - MAASTRICHT
DAY 3 - WE LEARN
AMSTERDAM
DAY 3 - WE LEARN
FABCITY - AMSTERDAM
DAY 4 - WE ACT
EU2016 MINISTERS MEETING - AMSTERDAM
DAY 4 - WE ACT
PAKHUIS DE ZWIJGER - AMSTERDAM
New Europe City Makers Summit is an initiative from Stichting Pakhuis de Zwijger and is made possible by all City Makers in the Netherlands and Europe. The initiative is supported by and coproduced with the following partners: