European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) side event

Resourceful Cities: Circular Transition Stories from 9 European Cities

On 19.10.2022, 9 European cities, including the City of Mechelen, one of the CECI partners,  signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Urban Resource Hubs to underline that circular hubs are crucial in the transition to a circular economy. Participants from local municipalities across Europe, but also from the European Committee of Regions, the @Urbact Programma, NGOs and citizens’ movements, businesses and research institutions fed the lively debate within this side event of the European Week of Cities and Regions. To conclude this successful event, the group visited the circular entrepreneurs housed at Impact Factor. They are the faces of the economy of tomorrow.

During the event, there was one panel debate organized in the spirit of CECI, focusing on citizen involvement regarding circular economy transition (session The Urban Resource Centre – a space for circular co-creation & action), promoting cross-sectoral participation in circular consumption, waste prevention, re-use, and circular resource management. 

After that, a tour of the Impact Factory took place, giving the floor to the organisations/ citizens who actually co-produce the circular transition. A similar tour was organized for the CECI partners and their stakeholders during the CECI interregional event in December 2021: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/ceci/news/news-article/13587/ceci-interregional-event-site-visits-in-mechelen/.