Building the "Spirit of Sevilla"

The 5^th European conference of Sustainable Cities and Towns was held in Sevilla, Spain, in the end of March. The UBC Commission on Environment was one of the conference preparation organizations and also led an active role by providing information about the sustainable development work carried out by the UBC member cities. The UBC also arranged a BSR forum, hosted by the President Per Boedker Andersen. The BSR forum was a successful meeting point for the BSR in Sevilla with more than 80 participants. Sevilla was a milestone highlighting the importance of sustainable development for local politicians in Europe.

Sevilla 2007 was built upon previous conferences, notably the Aalborg +10 Conference, 2004, which resulted in the Aalborg Commitments - a set of policy commitments that have been recognized by the European Council in the new European Sustainable Development Strategy as the focus for local sustain-ability process.

"The Spirit of Sevilla" reaffirms the Aalborg Commitments and promotes advanced implementation of development strategies in order to achieve local sustainability in Europe. Cities and towns will now take the Aalborg Commitments to the streets by engaging their citizens and stakeholders to ensure progress in local sustainability. This is expected to inspire and motivate other cities and local authorities to enter into the process by signing the Commitments. As a result of the conference over 1,600 delegates from European local governments have already committed to act immediately and implement advanced policies for local sustainable development.

"The conference participants were both interested in our projects and our network. We got a lot of new contacts as well as ideas for future projects", said network manager Stella Aaltonen, who was in charge of the well visited UBC stand.

The Commission is also engaged in the process of supporting the signing and implementing the Commitments through their hosting of the Nordic-Baltic Aalborg Commitments Network, together with the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities since the beginning of this year.