International Urban Cooperation

The International Urban Cooperation is a cooperation between partner cities in the EU and Japan (the City of Bratislava and the Japanese city of Tokorozawa)

As part of the initiative of the European Commission and the programme of International Urban Cooperation (IUC), focusing on the development of cooperation in the area of sustainable urban development, and supporting relationships between the cities (with 100k+ citizens) of the EU and the cities in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and North America, in international urban cooperation in the form of city-to-city twinning, a partnership cooperation of the cities of the EU and Japan has been initiated (of Bratislava, SK, and Tokorozawa, Japan). The cities will cooperate in climate change adaptation, urban nature-based solutions and smart eco-city development.

As part of the IUC programme, in 2018, the European Commission selected the following partner cities of the EU and Japan to cooperate in sustainable development: Bratislava and Tokorozawa (Japan), Grenoble – Alpes Metropole (France) and Toyota (Japan), and Umea (Sweden) and Kamakura (Japan).

The cooperation is to last for at least eighteen months, starting in October 2018, and anticipates mutual visits and sharing of the experience of the partner cities, and the preparation and updating of local action plans. Through the IUC coordination unit, the EC covers travel expenses related to activity execution. The activities are coordinated and financed by the IUC EC implementation unit in Brussels. The partnership agreement on cooperation within the IUC Programme between Bratislava and Tokorozawa was signed on 15.10.2018 and the cooperation will last at least up to 16.01.2020.

Within the structures of the City of Bratislava, the partnership cooperation as part of the International Urban Cooperation (IUC) initiative in the areas of climate change adaptation, urban nature-based solutions, and smart eco-city development is fulfilled by the Department of Strategy and Projects (cooperation coordination) and the Office of the Chief Architect.

The City of Bratislava is interested in learning about the Japanese approach to sustainable and smart urban development and planning, in particular in terms of nature-based adaptation solutions, their combination with traditional approaches (increasing the share of green areas, such as gardens and other forms of public greenery), using traditional architecture, and urban planning, and their benefits in cooling city areas, sustainable buildings, water collection systems, increasing the energy and climate resilience of public areas, energy efficiency solutions, smart management of large public green areas, and strategies for improving public awareness. The IUC cooperation objective is the preparation of Local Action Plans: drawing up action plans for the cities; these are to be executed in the next one to three years. As part of the IUC cooperation, Bratislava plans to integrate the experience acquired in implementing the Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan of Bratislava (approved on 4 October 2017), and update of the plan.

There was a business meeting as part of the EU-Japan IUC programme (Bratislava - Tokorozawa cooperation) on 15.-17.10.2018 in Bratislava, with 3 representatives of the city of Tokorozawa and prof. Imura, coordinator with the EU-Japan IUC programme coordination unit, as well as prof. Miranda Schreurs, coordinator of the Bratislava - Tokorozawa cooperation, who is also the EC specialist consultant in environmental policies. The itinerary of the business meeting held on 15.-17.10.2018 with the representatives of Tokorozawa included discussion in the areas of cooperation of climate change adaptation, urban nature-based solutions and smart eco-city development, as well as visits to and demonstrations at project execution locations in the city. On 20.-22.05.2019, a business meeting of four representatives of the City of Bratislava was held in Tokorozawa, focusing on sharing experience, visiting the locations there etc., including taking part on a IUC meeting in Tokyo on 17.05.2019.

Specialised guarantor of the project with Bratislava City Hall: Office of Chief Architect, [email protected]

Project Management Department of Strategy and Projects, [email protected]