Eurocities president, Mrs Eva-Riitta Siitonen, and the UBC President, Per Bodker Andersen, solemnly signed a long awaited co-operation agreement between Eurocities and UBC at a ceremony in the city hall of Helsinki on 6 June 2002.

The signing can be considered both as a statement of facts and a starting point for further development. UBC and Eurocities have in rising scale deepened the co-operation since some years already. There are also many possibilities for broader and increasing co-operation.

However, it is not the question that the two organisations can replace each other - the field of interest is very different and varied, so is the structure of members.

Eurocities only allows cities with more than 250 000 inhabitants or cities of a very strategic importance. At the moment the main co-operation takes place between the UBC Commission on Environment and Eurocities within the Sustainable Cities network and other environmental projects, but there is also a growing importance of the political co-operation between the organisations.