By Christine Schwaberger, Department for Environment and Spatial Planning, Provincial Government of Styria
In September 2017, the Mayor of Leibnitz (a city in Styria) participated in the second PERFECT PSC meeting in Ljubljana. He was impressed by the city and was very interested in their efforts to expand and improve the green infrastructure. As a result of the Mayor’s participation in this meeting, he initiated an excursion for his whole city council to visit Ljubljana to see the projects here and to educate his political colleagues about the multiple benefit of green infrastructure. The programme was arranged by the PERFECT partner the Department for Environment and Spatial Planning, Provincial Government of Styria. 
The first highlight was meeting the Mayor of Ljubljana in the townhall, arranged by the PERFECT partner the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region. This was followed by a presentation on the outcomes of Ljubljana being the European Green Capital 2016.
Using the electric urban train, the group then began their tour around Ljubljana, including visiting Šmartinski Park and two urban dwelling developments in Siska that the spatial planning, Heigl Consulting, had prepared information about. All these places are very carefully dealing with the aspects of implementing green infrastructure through planning. The aim of this special stakeholder study tour was to show the politicians how important the green infrastructure in Ljubljana is and the multiple benefits it provides.
The feedback received from participants was very positive, and one also wrote a small article about the study visit in a newsletter of the association of cities in Styria.
